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EXPOSITIONS  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE 


Expositions  of  Holy  Scripture 

A  COMMENTARY  ON  THE  BIBLE 
COMPLETE  IN   32  VOLyUMES 

B?  tbe  IRev,  Hlexant)er^flDacIaren 

Contents  of  tbe  Tirst  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.$o 

I  The  Boole  of  Genesis. 

2.  The  Book  of  Isai  ih  (Chapters  I-XLVIII) . 

3.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  Vol.  I  (Chapters  I— VIII). 

4.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew.  Vol.  II  ( Chapters  IX  -  XVII). 

5.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew.  Vol.  Ill  (XVlll-  XXVIII). 

6.  The  Book  of  Isaiah  (Chapten  XUX— LXVI)  and  the  Book  o» 

Jeremiah. 

Contents  of  the  Second  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.50 

1 .  The  Gospel  of  St.  Mark,  Vol.  I  (Chapters  I-VIIl) . 

2.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Mark,  Vol.  II  (Chapters  VIII-XVI). 

3.  The  Books  of  Exodus,  Leviticus  and  Numbers. 

4.  The  Books  of  Deuteronomy.  Joshua.  Judges.  Ruth  and  I.  Samuel. 
3.  Second  Book  of  Samuel,  First  Book  of  Kings.  Second  Book  of  Kingt 

(to  Chapter  Vll). 
6.    The  Acti  of  the  Apostles,  Vol.  I  (Chapters  I— XUI) . 

Contents  of  thi  third  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.50 

1 .  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Vol.  II  (Chapters  XllI  to  end). 

2.  The  Gospel  of  Sl.  John,  Vol.  I  (Chapters  I-VIII). 

3.  The  Gospel  of  St.  John,  Vol,  II  (Chapters  IX-XIV) . 

4.  The  Gospel  of  St.  John,  Vol.  Ill  (Chapters  XV    XXI). 

5.  The  Second   Book  of  Kings  (from  Chapter  VllI),  The  Books  of 

Chronidps,  Ezra,  Nehemiah. 

6.  The  Books  of  Esther,  Job,  Proverbs  and  Ecdetiastes. 

Contents  of  tbe  Tourtl)  Series,  Six  Uolumes,  $7.50 

1 .  The  Book  of  Psalms.  Vol.  I. 

2.  The  Book  of  Psalms,  Vol.  II. 

3.  Elzekiel.  Daniel  and  the  Minor  Prophets. 

4.  The  Book  of  St.  Luke.  Vol.  I. 

5.  The  Book  of  St.  Luke.  Vol.  II. 

6.  The  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

Contents  of  tbe  Tlftl)  Series,  CigM  Uolumes,  $10.00 

1 .  First  and  Second  CorinthiaDS. 

2.  Ephesians. 

3.  Cialatians  and  Philippians. 

4.  Colossians  to  Timothy. 

5.  Timothy,  Titus.  Philemon. 

6.  Hebrews.  James. 

7.  First  and  Second  Peter,  First  John. 

8.  Second  and  Third  John,  Jude,  Revelation. 

Dr.  Alexander  Maclaren's  incomparable  position  as  the  prince  of  ex- 
positors has  for  more  than  a  generation  been  recognized  throughout  the 
English-speaking  world.  He  holds  an  unchallenged  position,  and  it  is 
believed  that  this  series,  embodying  as  it  docs  the  treasure  store  of  Dr. 
Maclaren's  lifework,  will  be  found  of  priceless  value  by  preachers, 
teachers,  and  readers  of  the  Bible  generally. 

SOLD  ONLY  IN  SERIES 


MA'V   ')?»  19A1 
THE    EPISTLE    TO  S^o.^:,.^ 

THE    HEBREWS 

(CHAPTERS  VII.  TO  XIII.) 
THE    GENERAL    EPISTLE    OF 

JAMES 


BY 

ALEXANDER    MACLAREN 

D.D.,  LiTT.D. 


NEW  YORK 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  AND  SON 

3  &  5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  STREET 

LONDON:  HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 

MCMX 


CONTENTS 


HEBREWS 


Righteousness  Fibst,  Peace  Second  (Heb.  vil.  2) 


rAOB 

1 


The  Priest  whom  we  Need  (Heb.  vii.  26) 


10 


The  Enthroned  Servant  Christ  (Heb.  viii.  1,  2) 


20 


The  True  Ideal  (Heb.  viii.  5)         , 


29 


The  Articles  of  the  New  Covenant  (Heb.  viii.  10) 


The  Articles  of  the  New  Covenant  (Heb.  viii.  10) 


46 


The  Articles  of  the  New  Covenant  (Heb.  viii.  11) 


68 


The  Articles  of  the  New  Covenant  (Heb.  viii.  12) 


62 


The  Priest  in  the  Holy  Place  (Heb.  ix.  11-14,  24-28) 


72 


Thh  Enthroned  Christ  (Heb.  x.  12)  • 


76 


vi  HEBREWS 

MOB 

PBRFBOTBD  AMD  BBINO  Sanotivibd  (Heb.  X.  14)      •  .84 

A  Better  and  an  Endubino  Substance  (Heb.  x.  34)  .        02 

How  TO  OWN  OuBSBLVBB  (Heb.  X.  80)         •  •  .08 

Seeking  God  (Heb.  xi.  6)    •  •  •  •  .106 

Noah's  Faith  and  Ours  (Heb.  xl.  7)  •  •  .112 

The  Citt  and  thb  Tbnt  (Heb.  xi.  0,  10)     ,  •  •       120 

The  Attachments  and  Detachments  of  Faith  (Heb.  xi. 

13,  R.V.)  ••••..       129 

Seeking  the  Fatherland  (Heb.  xi.  14)     •  •  •       188 

The  Future  which  Vindicates  God  (Heb.  xi.  16)  •      147 

The  Faith  of  Moses  (Heb.  xi.  24-27)         •  •  •       166 

The  Cloud  of  Witnesses  and  their  Leader  (Heb.  xii. 

1,  2)        .  .  .  •  •  •  .166 

The  Christian  Life  a  Race  (Heb.  xii.  1)  .  .       177 

Weights  and  Sins  (Heb.  xii.  1)      .  .  •  •      186 


CONTENTS  vii 

FAOB 

Thb  Pebveotbr  of  Faith  (Heb.  xll.  2)      •  •  •109 

RssiSTiNQ  UNTO  Blood  (Heb.  xiL  4)            •  •                    .«jtf 

A  Father's  Disciplinb  (Heb.  xii.  10)         ^  •  •      218 

Esau's  Vain  Tbabs  (Heb.  xll.  17)    .            •  •  ,227 

With  whom  Faith  Liyks  (Heb.  xii.  22,  23)  .        •  •      238 

Faith's  Access  to  the  Judob,  and  His  Attendants 

(Heb.  xii.  23) 247 

The  Mbssengbb  ov  the  Ooyenant  and  its  Seal  (Heb. 

xii  21) 257 

Refusing  God's  Voice  (Heb.  xii.  25)           •  •  •       288 

God's  Voice  and  Man's  Echo  (Heb.  xiii.  5,  6)  •  •       277 

The  UNCHANQiNa  Christ  (Heb.  xiii.  8)       •  •  •285 

An  Established  Heart  (Heb.  xilL  0)        •  •  •       294 

Our  Altar  (Heb,  xiii.  10, 15)           .            •  •  .803 

•  Without  the  Camp  '  (Heb.  xiii.  13,  14)     .  •  •       818 


viii  JAMES 

The  Christian  Sacrifice  (Heb.  xiii.  15,  16) 


VAoa 

.       828 


Great  Hopes  a  Great  Duty  (Heb.  xiii.  20)  ,  ,       832 

The  Great  Prayer  Based  on  Great  Pleas  (Heb.  xiii. 

21)  . 812 


JAMES 


Patience  and  Her  Work  (James  i.  4) 


•       851 


Divine  Wisdom,  and  How  to  Get  It  (James  i.  5)  .       360 


The  Crown  (James  i.  12)     .  . 


•  First-Fruits  op  His  Creatures  *  (James  i.  18) 


The  Perfect  Law  and  Its  Doers  (James  i.  25) 


Pure  Worship  (James  i.  27)  •  • 


Faith  in  His  Name  (James  ii.  1)    ,  • 


Faith  Without  Works  (James  ii.  14-23)    . 


God's  Friends  (James  ii.  23) 


•   S68 


876 


•   807 


.   406 


415 


.   421 


A  Watch  on  the  Door  of  the  Lips  (James  iii.  1-13)       .       431 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  FIRST,  PEACE  SECOND 

'First  being,  by  interpretation.  King  of  righteousDess,  and  after  that  also  King 
of  Salem,  which  is,  King  of  peace.'— Heb.  vii.  2. 

That  mysterious,  shadowy  figure  of  the  priest-king 
Melchizedec  has  been  singularly  illuminated  and  solidi- 
fied by  recent  discovery.  You  can  see  now  in  Berlin 
and  London,  letters  written  fourteen  centuries  before 
Christ,  by  a  king  of  Jerusalem  who  describes  himself 
almost  in  the  very  words  which  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testaments  apply  to  Melchizedec.  He  says  that  he  is 
a  royal  priest  or  a  priestly  king.  He  says  that  he 
derived  his  royalty  neither  from  father  nor  mother, 
nor  by  genealogical  descent ;  and  he  says  that  he  owes 
it  to  'the  great  King' — possibly  an  equivalent  to  the 
'Most  High  God';  of  whom  Melchizedec  is  in  Scripture 
said  to  have  been  a  worshipper.  The  name  of  the  letter- 
writer  is  not  Melchizedec,  but  the  fact  that  his  royalty 
was  not  hereditary,  like  a  Pharaoh's,  may  explain  how 
each  monarch  bore  his  own  personal  appellation,  and 
not  one  common  to  successive  members  of  a  dynasty. 

And  are  not  the  names  of  King  and  city  significant 
— 'King  of  righteousness  .  .  .  King  of  peace"?  It 
sounds  like  a  yearning,  springing  up  untimely  in  those 
dim  ages  of  oppression  and  strife,  for  a  royalty  founded 
on  something  better  than  the  sword,  and  wielded  for 
something  higher  than  personal  ambition.  Such  an 
ideal  at  such  a  date  is  like  a  summer  day  that  has 
wandered  into  a  cold  March. 

But  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  imposes 
a  meaning  not  only  on  the  titles,  but  on  their  sequeucOi 

A 


2  HEBREWS  [ch.  vii. 

Of  course  therein  he  is  letting  a  sanctified  imagination 
play  round  a  fact,  and  giving  to  it  a  meaning  which  is 
not  in  it.  None  the  less  in  that  emphatic  expression 
'first  King  of  righteousness,  and  after  that  also  King 
of  peace/  he  penetrated  very  deeply  into  the  heart  of 
Christ's  reign  and  work,  and  echoed  a  sentiment  that 
runs  all  through  Scripture.  Hearken  to  one  psalmist : 
'The  mountains  shall  bring  peace  to  the  people,  and 
the  little  hills,  by  righteousness.'  Hearken  to  another : 
'Righteousness  and  peace  have  kissed  each  other.' 
Hearken  to  a  prophet:  'The  work  of  righteousness 
shall  be  peace ;  and  the  effect  of  righteousness,  quietness 
and  assurance  for  ever.'  Hearken  to  the  most  Hebrais- 
tic of  New  Testament  writers :  '  The  fruit  of  righteous- 
ness is  sown  in  peace.'  Hearken  to  the  central  teaching 
of  the  most  Evangelical,  if  I  may  so  say,  of  New  Testa- 
ment writers:  'Being  justified' — made  righteous  — 
'by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God.'  So  the  'first' 
and  the  'after  that'  reveal  to  us  the  very  depth  of 
Christ's  work,  and  carry  in  them  not  only  important 
teaching  as  to  that,  but  equally  important  directions 
and  guides  for  Christian  conduct;  and  it  is  to  this 
aspect  of  my  text,  and  this  only,  that  I  ask  your  atten- 
tion now. 

The  order  which  we  have  here,  *  first  of  all  King  of 
righteousness,  and  after  that  King  of  peace,'  is  the 
order  which  I  shall  try  to  illustrate  in  two  ways.  First, 
in  reference  to  Christ's  work  on  the  individual  soul; 
second,  in  reference  to  Christ's  work  on  society  and 
communities. 

First,  then,  here  we  have  laid  down  the  sequence  in 
which 

I.  Christ  comes  with  His  operations  and  His  gifts  to 
the  soul  that  clings  to  Him. 


T.3]  RIGHTEOUSNESS  FIRST  8 

First  '  righteou8Qes8  .  .  .  after  .  .  .  peace.*  Now  I 
need  not  do  more  than  in  a  sentence  remind  you  of  the 
basis  upon  which  the  thoughts  in  the  text,  and  all  right 
understanding  of  Christ's  work  on  an  individual, 
repose,  and  that  is  that  without  righteousness  no  man 
can  either  be  at  peace  with  God  or  with  himself.  Not 
with  God — for  however  shallow  experience  may  talk 
effusively  and  gushingly  about  a  God  who  is  all  mercy, 
and  who  loves  and  takes  to  His  heart  the  sinner  and 
the  saint  alike ;  such  a  God  drapes  the  universe  in  dark- 
ness, and  if  there  are  no  moral  distinctions  which 
determine  whether  a  man  is  in  amity  or  hostility  with 
God,  then  '  the  pillared  firmament  itself  is  rottenness, 
and  earth's  base  built  on  stubble.*  No,  no,  brethren ; 
it  sounds  very  tender  and  kindly;  at  bottom  it  is  the 
cruellest  thing  that  you  can  say,  to  say  that  without 
righteousness  a  man  can  please  God.  The  sun  is  in  the 
heavens,  and  whether  there  be  mist  and  fog  down  here, 
or  the  bluest  of  summer  skies,  the  sun  is  above.  But 
its  rays  coming  through  the  ethereal  blue  are  warmth 
and  blessedness,  and  its  rays  cut  off  by  mists  are 
dim,  and  itself  turned  into  a  lurid  ball  of  fire.  It  cannot 
be — and  thank  God  that  it  cannot — that  it  is  all  the 
same  to  Him  whether  a  man  is  saint  or  sinner. 

I  do  not  need  to  remind  you  that  in  like  manner 
righteousness  must  underlie  peace  with  oneself.  For  it 
is  true  to-day,  as  it  was  long  generations  ago,  according 
to  the  prophet,  that  'the  wicked  is  like  the  troubled 
eea  which  cannot  rest,  whose  waters  throw  up  mire  and 
dirt,'  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  promise  is  true  still 
and  for  ever;  'O  that  thou  hadst  hearkened  unto  me, 
then  had  thy  peace  been  like  a  river,'  because  'thy 
righteousness '  will  be  '  like  the  waves  of  the  sea.'  For 
ever  and  ever  it  stands  true  that  for  peace  with  God, 


4  HEBREWS  [ch.  vii. 

and  for  a  quiet  heart,  and  a  nature  at  harmony  with 
itself,  there  must  be  righteousness. 

Well,  then,  Jesus  Christ  comes  to  bring  to  a  man 
the  righteousness  without  which  there  can  be  no  peace 
in  his  life.  And  that  is  the  meaning  of  the  great  word 
which,  having  been  taken  for  a  shibboleth  and  'test 
of  a  falling  or  a  standing  Church,'  has  been  far  too  much 
ossified  into  a  mere  theological  dogma,  and  has  been 
weakened  and  misunderstood  in  the  process.  Justifica- 
tion by  faith ;  that  is  the  battle-cry  of  Protestant  com- 
munities. And  what  does  it  mean?  That  I  shall  be 
treated  as  righteous,  not  being  so?  That  I  shall  be 
forgiven  and  acquitted  ?  Yes,  thank  God !  But  is 
that  all  that  it  means,  or  is  that  the  main  thing  that 
it  means  ?  No,  thank  God  !  for  the  very  heart  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  righteousness  is  this,  that  if,  and 
as  soon  as,  a  man  puts  his  trembling  trust  in  Jesus  Christ 
as  his  Saviour,  then  he  receives  not  merely  pardon,  which 
is  the  uninterrupted  flow  of  the  divine  love  in  spite  of 
his  sin,  nor  an  accrediting  him  with  a  righteousness 
which  does  not  belong  to  him,  but  an  imparting  to  him 
of  that  new  life,  a  spark  from  the  central  fire  of  Christ's 
life,  *  the  new  man  which,  after  God,  is  created  in  right- 
eousness and  true  holiness.*  Do  not  suppose  that  the 
great  message  of  the  gospel  is  merely  forgiveness.  Do 
not  suppose  that  its  blessed  gift  is  only  that  a  man  is 
acquitted  because  Christ  has  died.  All  that  is  true. 
But  there  is  something  more  than  that  which  is  the 
basis  of  that  other,  and  that  is  that  by  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  I  am  so  knit  to  Him — '  He  that  is  joined  to  the 
Lord'  being  'one  spirit' — as  that  there  passes  into  me, 
by  His  gift,  a  life  which  is  created  after  His  life,  and  is 
in  fact  cognate  and  kindred  with  it. 

No  doubt  it  is  a  mere  germ,  no  doubt  it  needs  cultivat- 


V.  2]  RIGHTEOUSNESS  FIRST  5 

ing,  developmont,  carefully  guarding  against  gnawing 
insects  and  blighting  frosts.  But  the  seed  which  is 
implanted,  though  it  be  less  than  the  least  of  all  seeds, 
has  in  itself  the  promise  and  the  potency  of  triumphant 
growth,  when  it  will  tower  above  all  the  poisonous 
shrubs  and  undergrowth  of  the  forest,  and  have  the 
light  of  heaven  resting  on  its  aspiring  top.  Here  is  the 
great  blessing  and  distinctive  characteristic  of  Christian 
morality,  that  it  does  not  say  to  a  man :  '  First  aim 
after  good  deeds  and  so  grow  up  into  goodness,'  but  it 
starts  with  a  gift,  and  says,  '  Work  from  that,  and  by 
the  power  of  that.  "  I  make  the  tree  good," '  says  Jesus 
to  us,  'do  you  see  to  it  that  the  fruit  is  good.'  No 
doubt  the  vegetable  metaphor  is  inadequate,  because  the 
leaf  is  wooed  from  out  the  bud,  and  *  grows  green  and 
broad,  and  takes  no  care,'  but  that  effortless  growth 
is  not  how  righteousness  increases  in  men.  The  germ 
is  given  them,  and  they  have  to  cultivate  it.  First, 
there  must  be  the  impartation  of  righteousness,  and 
then  there  comes  to  the  mian's  heart  the  sweet  assur- 
ance of  peace  with  God,  and  he  has  within  him  'a 
conscience  like  a  sea  at  rest,  imaginations  calm  and 
fair.'  'First,  King  of  righteousness;  after  that,  King 
of  peace.' 

Now  if  we  keep  firm  hold  of  this  sequence,  a  great 
many  of  the  popular  objections  to  the  gospel,  as  if  it 
were  merely  a  means  of  forgiveness  and  escape,  and 
a  system  of  reconciliation  by  some  kind  of  forensic 
expedient,  fall  away  of  themselves,  and  a  great  many 
of  the  popular  blunders  that  Christian  people  make 
fall  away  too.  For  there  are  good  folks  to  whom  the 
great  truth  that  '  God  is  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
to  Himself,  not  imputing  to  them  their  trespasses,'  and 
welcoming  them  to  all  the  fulness  of  an  overflowing 


6  HEBREWS  [ch.  vii. 

love,  has  obscured  the  other  truth  that  there  is  no 
peace  for  a  Christian  man  continuous  through  his  life, 
unless  equally  continuous  through  his  life  are  his 
efforts  to  work  out  in  acts  the  new  nature  which  he 
has  received. 

Thus  my  text,  by  the  order  in  which  it  places  righteous- 
ness and  peace,  not  only  illuminates  the  work  of 
Christ  upon  each  individual  soul,  but  comes  with  a 
very  weighty  and  clear  direction  to  Christian  people 
as  to  their  course  of  conduct.  Are  you  looking  for 
comfort?  Is  what  you  want  to  get  out  of  your 
religion  mainly  the  assurance  that  you  will  not  go 
to  hell?  Is  the  great  blessing  that  Christ  brings  to 
you  only  the  blessing  of  pardon,  which  you  degrade 
to  mean  immunity  from  punishment?  You  are  wrong. 
'First  of  all,  King  of  righteousness' — let  that  which 
is  first  of  all  in  His  gifts  be  first  of  all  in  your  efforts 
too ;  and  do  not  seek  so  much  for  comfort  as  for 
grace  to  know  and  to  do  your  duty,  and  strength  to 
'cast  off  the  unfruitful  works  of  darkness,'  and  to 
'  put  on  the  armour  of  light.'  The  order  which  is  laid 
down  in  my  text  was  laid  down  with  a  different 
application,  by  our  Lord  Himself,  and  ought  to  be  in 
both  forms  the  motto  for  all  Christian  people.  '  Seek 
ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness, 
and  all  these  things  '—comfort,  sense  of  reconciliation, 
assurance  of  forgiveness,  joyful  hope,  and  the  like,  as 
well  as  needful  material  good — 'shall  be  added  unto 
you.' 

And  now,  secondly,  my  text  gives  the  order  of 

II.  Christ's  work  in  the  world,  and  of  His  servant's 
work  after  Him. 

Of  course,  our  Lord's  work  in  the  world  is  simply 
the  aggregate  of  His  work  on  individual  souls.    But 


f.2]  RIGHTEOUSNESS  FIRST  7 

for  the  sake  of  clearness  we  may  consider  these  two 
aspects  of  it  somewhat  apart.  In  regard  to  this  second 
part  of  my  subject,  I  would  begin,  as  I  began  in  the 
former  section,  by  reminding  you  that  the  only  basis 
on  which  harmonious  relations  between  men  in  com- 
munities, great  or  small,  can  be  built,  is  righteousness, 
in  the  narrowest  sense  O'f  the  word,  meaning  thereby 
justice,  equal  dealing  as  between  man  and  man,  with- 
out partiality  or  class  favouritism.  Wherever  you  get 
an  unjustly  treated  section  or  order  of  men,  there  you 
get  the  beginnings  of  war  and  strife.  A  social  order 
built  upon  injustice,  just  in  the  measure  in  which  it  is 
so  built,  is  based  upon  a  quicksand  which  will  suck  it 
down,  or  on  a  volcano  which  will  blow  it  to  pieces. 
Injustice  is  the  grit  in  the  machine ;  you  may  oil  it  as 
much  as  you  like  with  philanthropy  and  benevolence, 
but  until  you  get  the  grit  out,  it  will  not  work 
smoothly.  There  is  no  harmony  amongst  men  unless 
their  association  is  based  and  bottomed  upon  righteous- 
ness. 

Jesus  Christ  comes  into  the  world  to  bring  peace  at 
the  far  end,  but  righteousness  at  the  near  end,  and 
therefore  strife.  The  herald  angels  sang  peace  upon 
earth.  They  were  looking  to  the  deepest  and  ultimate 
issues  of  His  mission,  but  when  He  contemplated  its 
immediate  results  He  had  to  say,  'Suppose  ye  that  I 
bring  peace  on  earth  ?  I  tell  you  nay,  but  rather 
division.'  He  rode  into  Jerusalem  'the  King,  meek, 
and  having  salvation,'  throned  upon  the  beast  of 
burden  which  symbolised  peace.  But  He  will  come 
forth  in  the  last  fight,  as  He  has  been  coming  forth 
through  all  the  ages,  mounted  on  the  white  horse,  with 
the  sword  girt  upon  His  thigh  in  behalf  of  meekness 
and  righteousness  and  truth.    Christ,  and  Christianity 


8  HEBREWS  [ch.  vn. 

when  it  keeps  close  to  Christ,  is  a  ferment,  not  an 
emollient.  The  full  and  honest  application  of  Christ's 
teaching  and  principles  to  any  society  on  the  face  of 
the  earth  at  this  day  is  bound  to  result  in  agitation 
and  strife.  There  is  no  help  for  it.  When  a  pure  jet 
of  water  is  discharged  into  a  foul  ditch,  there  will  be 
much  uprising  of  mud.  Effervescence  will  always 
follow  when  Christ's  principles  are  applied  to  existing 
institutions.  And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  Christian 
men,  in  the  measure  in  which  they  are  true  to  their 
Master,  turn  the  world  upside  down.  There  will 
follow,  of  course,  the  tranquillity  that  does  follow  on 
righteousness ;  but  that  is  far  ahead,  and  there  is 
many  a  weary  mile  to  be  trod,  and  many  a  sore 
struggle  to  be  undertaken,  before  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  become  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
Christ,  and  strife  ends  for  ever. 

Now,  if  this  be  so,  then  in  this  necessary  char- 
acteristic of  Christ's  operation  on  the  world,  viz., 
disturbance  arising  from  the  endeavour  to  enthrone 
righteousness  where  its  opposite  has  ruled  —  there 
results  very  plainly  important  teaching  as  to  the 
duties  of  Christ's  servants  to  take  their  full  share 
in  the  fight,  to  be  the  knights  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
champions  of  righteousness.  The  Church  ought  to 
lead  in  the  van  of  all  assaults  on  hoary  wrongs  or 
modern  forms  of  unrighteousness  in  municipal,  political, 
national  life.  And  it  is  the  disgrace  of  the  Church  that 
so  largely  it  leaves  that  contest  to  be  waged  by  men 
who  make  no  pretence  to  be  Christians. 

There  is,  unfortunately,  a  type  of  Christian  thinking 
and  life,  of  which  in  many  respects  one  would  speak 
with  all  sympathy  and  admiration,  which  warns  the 
Christian     Church    against    casting    itself   into    this 


V.2]  RIGHTEOUSNESS  FIRST  9 

contest,  in  the  alleged  interest  of  a  superior  spirit- 
uality and  a  loftier  conception  of  Evangelical  trutli. 
I  believe,  as  heartily  as  any  man  can — and  I  venture  to 
appeal  to  those  who  hear  me  Sunday  by  Sunday,  and 
from  year  to  year,  whether  it  is  not  so — that  the 
preaching  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  cure  for  all  the  world's 
miseries,  and  the  banishment  of  all  the  world's  un- 
righteousness ;  but  am  I  to  be  told  that  the  endeavour 
to  ax>i)ly  the  person  and  the  principles  of  Jesus  Christ, 
in  His  life  and  death,  to  existing  institutions  and  evils, 
is  not  preaching  Christ  ?  I  believe  that  it  is,  and  that 
the  one  thing  that  the  Church  wants  to-day  is  not 
less  of  holding  up  the  Cross  and  the  Sacrifice,  but  more 
of  pointing  to  the  Cross  and  the  Sacrifice  as  the  cure 
of  all  the  world's  evils,  and  the  pattern  for  all 
righteousness. 

It  is  difficult  to  do,  it  is  made  difficult  by  our  own 
desire  to  be  what  the  prophet  did  not  think  a  very 
reputable  position,  'at  ease  in  Zion.'  It  is  also  made 
difficult  by  the  way  in  which,  as  is  most  natural,  the 
world,  meaning  thereby  godless,  organised  society, 
regards  an  active  Church  that  desires  to  bring  its 
practices  to  the  test  of  Christ's  word.  Muzzled  watch- 
dogs that  can  neither  bark  nor  bite  are  much  admired 
by  burglars.  And  a  Church  that  confines  itself  to 
theory,  to  what  it  calls  religion,  and  leaves  the  world 
to  go  to  the  devil  as  it  likes,  suits  both  the  world  and 
the  devil.  There  was  once  a  Prime  Minister  of  England 
who  came  out  of  church  one  Sunday  morning  in  a  state 
of  towering  indignation  because  the  clergyman  had 
spoken  about  conduct.  And  that  is  exactly  how  the 
world  feels  about  an  intrusive  Church  that  will  push  its 
finger  into  all  soc-lal  arrangements,  and  say  about  each 
of  them,  '  This  must  be  as  Christ  commanded.' 


10  HEBREWS  [cH.vii. 

Brethren !  would  God  that  all  Christian  men  deserved 
the  name  of  '  troublcrs  of  Israel.'  There  was  once  a 
prophet  to  whom  the  men  of  his  day  indignantly  said, 
*  O  sword  of  the  Lord,  how  long  will  it  be  ere  thou  be 
quiet?  Put  up  thyself  in  thy  scabbard,  rest  and  bo 
still.'  And  the  answer  was  the  only  possible  one, 
'How  can  it  be  quiet,  seeing  that  the  Lord  hath 
appointed  it  ? '  If  you  and  I  are  Christ's  servants,  we 
shall  follow  the  sequence  of  His  operations,  and  seek 
to  establish  righteousness  first  and  then  peace. 

The  true  Salem  is  above. 

•  My  soul,  there  is  a  country 
Afar  beyond  the  stars.' 

There  '  sweet  peace  sits  crowned  with  smiles.'  The 
Bwords  will  then  be  wreathed  with  laurel  and  men 
'  shall  learn  war  no  more,'  for  the  King  has  fought  the 
great  fight,  'and  of  the  increase  of  His  government 
and  peace  there  shall  be  no  end  ...  in  righteousness 
and  justice,  from  henceforth  even  for  ever.'  Let  us 
take  Him  for  '  the  Lord  our  righteousness,'  and  we 
shall  blessedly  find  that  *  this  Man  is  our  peace.'  Let 
us  take  arms  in  the  Holy  War  which  He  wages,  and 
we  shall  have  peace  in  our  hearts  whilst  the  fight  is 
sorest.  Let  us  labour  to  '  be  found  in  Him  .  .  .  having 
the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith,'  and 
then  we  shall '  be  found  in  Him  in  peace,  without  spot, 
blameless.' 


THE  PRIEST  WHOM  WE  NEED 

'  Such  an  high  priest  became  us,  who  is  holy,  harmless,  undefllcd,  separate  from 
sinners,  and  made  higher  than  the  heavens.'— Heb.  vii.  26. 

'  It  became  Him  to  make  the  Captain  of  our  salvation 
perfect  through  sufferings.'    '  In  all  things  it  behoved 


V.2G]   THE  PRIEST  WHOM  WE  NEED       11 

Him  to  be  made  like  unto  His  brethren.'  'Such  an 
High  Priest  became  us.'  In  these  three  sayings  of  this 
Epistle  the  historical  facts  of  the  gospel  are  considered 
as  corresponding  to  or  in  accordance  and  congruity 
with,  respectively,  the  divine  nature ;  Christ's  char- 
acter and  purpose ;  and  man's  need.  I  have  considered 
the  two  former  texts  in  previous  sermons,  and  now  I 
desire  to  deal  with  this  latter.  It  asserts  that  Jesus 
Christ,  regarded  as  the  High  Priest,  meets  the  deepest 
wants  of  every  heart,  and  fits  human  necessity  as  the 
glove  does  the  hand.  He  is  the  answer  to  all  our 
questions,  the  satisfaction  of  all  our  wants,  the  bread 
for  our  hunger,  the  light  for  our  darkness,  the 
strength  for  our  w^eakness,  the  medicine  for  our 
sickness,  the  life  for  our  death.  'Such  a  High 
Priest  became  us.' 

But  the  other  side  is  quite  as  true.  Christianity  is  in 
full  accordance  with  men's  wants,  Christianity  is  in 
sharp  antagonism  with  a  great  deal  which  men  suppose 
to  be  their  wants.  Men's  wishes,  desires,  readings  of 
their  necessities  and  conceptions  of  what  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  divine  nature,  are  not  to  be  taken  with- 
out more  ado  as  being  the  guides  of  what  a  revelation 
from  God  ought  to  be.  The  two  characteristics  of 
correspondence  and  opposition  must  both  unite,  in  all 
that  comes  to  us  certified  as  being  from  God.  There 
is  an  '  offence  of  the  Cross ' ;  and  Christ,  for  all  His 
correspondence  with  the  deepest  necessities  of  human 
nature,  and  I  might  even  say  just  by  reason  of  that 
correspondence,  will  be  'to  the  Jews  a  stumbling- 
block  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness.'  If  a  message 
professing  to  be  from  God  had  not  the  discord  between 
man's  expectations  and  its  facts,  a  message  so  like  a 
man's  would  bear  upon  its  front  the  evidence  that  it 


12  HEBREWS  [cn.vii. 

was  of  man.  If  a  message  professing  to  be  from  God 
had  not  the  correspondence  with  man's  deepest  wants, 
a  message  so  unlike  men  would  bear  upon  its  front  the 
evidence  that  it  was  not  of  God. 

So  then,  remembering  the  necessary  complementary 
thought  to  this  of  my  text  that  '  such  a  high  priest 
became  us,'  there  are  two  or  three  considerations 
springing  from  the  words  that  I  desire  to  suggest. 

I.  The  first  of  them  is  this — we  all  need  a  priest,  and 
we  have  the  priest  w^e  need  in  Jesus  Christ. 

The  outstanding  fact  in  reference  to  human  nature  in 
this  connection  is  that  it  is  a  sinful  nature.  We  have 
all  departed  from  the  path  of  rectitude  and  have 
nourished  desires  and  tastes  and  purposes  which  do  not 
rend  us  apart  from  God,  and  between  us  and  Him  do 
interpose  a  great  barrier.  Our  consciences  need  a 
priest,  or  rather  they  say  'Amen'  to  the  necessity  born 
of  our  sins,  that  there  shall  stand  between  us  and  God 
'  a  great  High  Priest.'  I  need  not  elaborate  or  enlarge 
upon  this  matter.  The  necessity  of  Christ's  sacerdotal 
character,  and  the  adaptation  of  that  character  to  men's 
deepest  wants,  are  not  only  to  be  argued  about,  but  we 
have  to  appeal  to  men's  consciences,  and  try  to  waken 
them  to  an  adequate  and  profound  sense  of  the  reality 
and  significance  of  the  fact  of  transgression.  If  once  a 
man  comes  to  feel,  what  is  true  about  him,  that  he  is  in 
God's  sight  a  sinful  man ;  to  regard  that  fact  in  all  its 
breadth,  in  all  its  consequences,  in  all  its  depth,  there 
will  not  want  any  more  arguing  to  make  him  see  that 
a  gospel  which  deals  primarily  with  the  fact  of  sin, 
and  proclaims  a  priest  whose  great  work  is  to  offer  a 
sacrifice,  is  the  gospel  that  he  needs. 

In  fair  weather,  when  the  summer  seas  are  sunny  and 
smooth,  and  all  the  winds  are  sleeping  in  their  caves, 


V.  2GJ   THE  TRIES T  WHOM  WE  NEED      13 

the  life-belts  on  the  deck  of  a  steamer  may  be  thought 
to  be  unnecessary,  but  when  she  strikes  on  the  black- 
toothed  rocks,  and  all  about  is  a  hell  of  noise  and 
despair,  then  the  meaning  of  them  is  understood, 
When  you  are  amongst  the  breakers  you  will  need  a 
life-buoy.  AVlien  the  flames  are  flickering  round  you, 
you  will  understand  the  use  and  worth  of  a  fire-escape, 
and  when  you  have  learned  what  sort  of  a  man  you 
are,  and  what  that  involves  in  regard  of  your  relations 
to  God,  then  the  mysteries  which  surround  the  thought 
of  the  high  priesthood  and  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ 
will  be  accepted  as  mysteries,  and  left  where  they  are, 
and  the  fact  will  be  grasped  with  all  the  tendrils 
of  your  soul  as  the  one  hope  for  you  in  life  and  in 
death. 

I  do  not  care  to  argue  a  man  out  of  his  imperfect 
apprehensions,  if  he  have  them,  of  the  mission  and 
work  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  oh,  dear  friends !  you  for 
whose  blood  I  am  in  some  sense  responsible,  let  me 
plead  with  you  this  one  thought— you  have  not  taken 
the  point  of  view  from  which  to  judge  of  the  gospel 
until  you  have  stood  in  the  perfect  rectitude  of  heaven 
and  contrasted  your  blackness  with  its  stainless  purity, 
and  its  solemn  requirements  ;  and  have  looked  all  round 
the  horizon  to  see  if  anywhere  there  is  a  means  by 
which  a  sinful  soul  can  be  liberated  from  the  dragon's 
sting  of  conscience,  and  from  the  crushing  burden  of 
guilt,  and  set  upon  a  rock,  emancipated  and  cleansed. 
We  need  a  priest  because  we  are  sinful  men,  and  sin 
means  separation  in  fact  and  alienation  in  spirit,  and 
the  entail  of  dreadful  consequences,  which,  as  far  as 
Nature  is  concerned,  cannot  be  prevented  from  coming. 
And  so  sin  means  that  if  men  are  to  be  brought  again 
into  the  fellowship  and  the  family  of  God,  it  must  be 


14  HEBREWS  [CH.  vii. 

through  One  who,  being  a  true  priest,  offers  a  real 
sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world. 

The  new  science  of  comparative  religion  has  been 
made  by  some  of  its  adepts  to  bear  witness  unfavour- 
ably to  the  claims  of  Christianity.  A  far  truer  use  of 
it  would  be  this— Wherever  men  have  worshipped,  they 
have  worshipped  at  an  altar,  there  has  been  on  it  a 
sacrifice  offered  by  a  purged  hand  that  symbolised 
moral  purity.  And  all  these  are  witnesses  that  human- 
ity recognises  the  necessity  which  my  text  affirms  has 
been  met  in  Christ.  Some  people  would  say  '  Yes !  and 
your  doctrine  of  a  Christ  who  is  sacrifice  and  priest, 
has  precisely  the  same  origin  as  those  altars,  many 
smoking  with  sacrifices  to  tyrannical  gods.'  But  to  me 
the  relation  between  the  faiths  of  the  world  and  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  in  reference  to  this  matter,  is  much 
rather  this,  that  they  proclaim  a  want,  and  that  Christ 
brings  the  satisfaction  of  it;  that  they  with  one 
voice  cry,  '  Oh !  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find 
Him!  How  shall  a  man  be  just  with  God?'  and 
that  the  Cross  of  Christ  answers  their  longings,  and 
offers  the  means  by  which  we  may  draw  nigh  to  God. 
'Such  a  High  Priest  became  us.' 

II.  We  may  take  another  consideration  from  these 
words,  viz. — We  need  for  a  priest  a  perfect  man,  and 
we  have  the  perfect  priest  whom  we  need,  in  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  writer  goes  on  to  enumerate  a  series  of  qualities 
by  which  our  Lord  is  constituted  the  priest  we  need. 
Of  these  five  qualities  which  follow  in  my  text,  the 
three  former  are  those  to  which  I  now  refer.  '  He  is 
holy,  harmless,  undefiled.' 

Now  I  do  not  need  to  spend  time  in  discussing  the 
precise  meaning  of  these  words,  but  a  remark  or  two 


V.26]  THE  PRIEST  WHOM  WE  NEED       15 

about  each  of  them  may  perhaps  bo  admissible. 
Taken  generally,  these  three  characteristics  refer  to  the 
priest's  relation  to  God,  to  other  men,  and  to  the  law  of 
purity.  '  He  is  holy ' ;  that  is  to  say,  not  so  much 
morally  free  from  guilt  as  standing  in  a  certain  relation 
to  God.  The  word  here  used  for  'holy'  has  a  special 
meaning.  It  is  the  representative  of  an  old  Testament 
word,  which  seems  to  mean  '  Devoted  to  God  in  love.' 
And  it  expresses  not  merely  the  fact  of  consecration, 
but  the  motive  and  the  means  of  that  consecration,  as 
being  the  result  of  God's  love  or  mercy  which  kindles 
self-surrendering  love  in  the  recipient.  Such  is  the 
first  qualification  for  a  priest,  that  he  shall  be  knit  to 
God  by  loving  devotion,  and  have  a  heart  throbbing  in 
unison  with  the  divine  heart  in  all  its  tenderness  of 
pity  and  in  all  its  nobleness  and  loftiness  of  purity. 

And,  besides  being  thus  the  earthly  echo  and  repre- 
sentative of  the  whole  sweetness  of  the  divine  nature, 
so,  in  the  next  place,  the  priest  we  need  must,  in 
relation  to  men,  be  harmless — without  malice,  guile, 
unkindness;  a  Lamb  of  God,  with  neither  horns  to 
butt,  nor  teeth  to  tear,  nor  claws  to  wound,  but  gentle 
and  gracious,  sweet  and  compassionate ;  or,  as  we  read 
in  another  place  in  this  same  letter,  '  a  merciful  High 
Priest  in  things  pertaining  to  God.'  And  the  priest 
that  we  need  to  bridge  over  the  gulf  between  us  sinful 
and  alienated  men  and  God,  must  not  only  be  one  knit 
to  God  in  all  sympathy,  and  representing  His  purity 
and  tenderness  amongst  us ;  nor  must  the  priest  that 
we  need  by  reason  of  our  miseries,  our  sorrows,  our 
weaknesses,  our  bleeding  wounds,  our  broken  hearts, 
be  only  a  priest  filled  with  compassion  and  merciful, 
who  can  lay  a  gentle  hand  upon  our  sore  and  sensitive 
spirits,    but  the    priest  that  we  men,  spattered    and 


16  HEBREWS  [ch.  vil 

befouled  witli  the  mire  and  filth  of  sin,  which  has  left 
deep  stains  upon  our  whole  nature,  need,  must  be  one 
*  undefiled,'  on  whose  white  garments  there  shall  be  no 
speck;  on  the  virgin  purity  of  whose  nature  there  shall 
be  no  stain ;  who  shall  stand  above  us,  though  He  be 
one  of  us,  and  whilst  *  it  behoves  Him  to  be  made  in  all 
points  like  unto  His  brethren,'  shall  yet  be  'without 
blemish  and  without  spot.' 

'It  behoved  Him  to  be  made  like  unto  His  brethren.' 
The  priest  of  the  world  must  be  like  the  w^orld.  My 
text  says,  '  Yes  !  and  He  must  be  absolutely  unlike  the 
world.'  Now,  is  this  not  a  strange  thing — this  is  a 
disgression,  but  it  may  be  allowed  for  one  moment — is 
it  not  a  strange  thing  that  in  these  four  little  tracts 
which  we  call  gospels,  that  might  all  be  printed  upon 
two  sides  of  a  penny  newspaper,  you  get  drawn,  with 
such  few  strokes,  a  picture  which  harmonises,  in  a 
possible  person,  these  two  opposite  requirements,  the 
absolute  unlikeness  and  the  perfect  likeness?  Think 
of  how  difficult  it  would  be  if  it  was  not  a  copy  from 
life,  to  draw  a  figure  with  these  two  characteristics 
harmonised.  What  geniuses  the  men  must  have  been 
that  wrote  the  gospels,  if  they  were  not  something 
much  simpler  than  that,  honest  witnesses  who  told 
exactly  what  they  saw!  The  fact  that  the  life  and 
death  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  recorded  in  Scripture,  present 
this  strange  combination  of  two  opposite  requirements 
in  the  most  perfect  harmony  and  beauty,  is  in  my  eyes 
no  contemptible  proof  of  the  historical  veracity  of  the 
picture  which  is  presented  to  us.  If  the  life  was  not 
lived  I,  for  one,  do  not  believe  that  it  ever  could  have 
been  invented. 

But  that,  as  I  said,  has  nothing  to  do  with  my  present 
subject.    And  so  I  pass  on  just  to  notice,  in  a  word, 


V.  20]  THE  rillEST  WHOM  WE  NEED       17 

how  this  assemblage  of  qualifications  which,  taken 
together,  make  np  the  idea  of  a  perfect  man,  is  found 
in  Jesus  Christ  for  a  certain  purpose,  and  a  purpose 
beyond  that  which  some  of  you,  I  am  afraid,  are 
accustomed  to  regard.  Why  this  innocence;  this  God- 
devotedncss;  this  blamelessness;  this  absence  of  all 
selfish  antagonism  ?  Why  this  life,  so  sweet,  so  pure, 
so  gentle,  so  running  over  with  untainted  and  un- 
grudging compassion,  so  conscious  of  unbroken  and 
perfect  communion  and  sympathy  with  God?  Why? 
That  He  might,  'through  the  Eternal  Spirit,  offer 
Himself  without  spot  unto  God ' ;  and  that  by  His  one 
offering  He  might  perfect  for  ever  all  them  that  put 
their  trust  in  Him. 

Oh,  brother !  you  do  not  understand  the  meaning  of 
Christ's  innocence  unless  you  see  in  it  the  condition  of 
efficiencj'^  of  His  sacrifice.  It  is  that  He  might  be  the 
priest  of  the  world  that  He  wears  this  fine  linen  clean 
and  white,  the  righteousness  of  a  pure  and  perfect  soul. 

I  beseech  you,  then,  ponder  for  yourselves  the  mean- 
ing of  this  admitted  fact.  We  all  acknowledge  His 
purity.  We  all  adore,  in  some  sense  of  the  word.  His 
perfect  manhood.  If  the  one  stainless  and  sinless  man 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen  had  such  a  life  and  such  a 
death  as  is  told  in  these  gospels,  they  are  no  gospels, 
except  on  one  supposition.  But  for  it  they  are  the 
most  despairing  proclamation  of  the  old  miserable  fact 
that  righteousness  suffers  in  the  world.  The  life  of 
Christ,  if  He  be  the  pure  and  perfect  man  that  we 
believe  Him  to  be,  and  not  the  perfect  priest  offering 
up  a  pure  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  is 
the  most  damning  indictment  that  was  ever  drawn  up 
against  the  blunders  of  a  Providence  that  so  mis- 
governs the  world. 

B 


18  HEBREWS  [ch.vii. 

'He  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  His 
mouth.'  And,  therefore,  when  we  look  upon  His 
sufferings,  in  life  and  in  death,  we  can  only  understand 
them  and  the  relation  of  His  innocence  to  the  divine 
heart  when  we  say :  '  Yet  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise 
Him.  He  hath  put  Him  to  grief,'  'by  His  stripes  we 
are  healed.  Such  a  priest  became  us,  who  is  holy, 
harmless,  undefiled';  the  sacrificial  Lamb,  without 
blemish  and  without  spot. 

IIL  Lastly,  my  text  suggests  that  we  need  a  priest 
in  the  heavens,  and  we  have  in  Christ  the  heavenly 
priest  whom  we  need. 

The  two  last  qualifications  for  the  priestly  office 
included  in  my  text  are,  '  separate  from  sinners ;  made 
higher  than  the  heavens.'  Now,  the  'separation' 
intended,  is  not,  as  I  suppose,  Christ's  moral  distance 
from  evil-doers,  but  has  what  I  may  call  a  kind  of 
half-local  signification,  and  is  explained  by  the  next 
clause.  He  is  '  separate  from  sinners '  not  because  He 
is  pure  and  they  foul,  but  because  having  offered  His 
sacrifice  He  has  ascended  up  on  high. 

He  is  'made  higher  than  the  heavens.'  Scripture 
sometimes  speaks  of  the  living  Christ"  as  at  present  in 
the  heavens,  and  at  others  as  having  '  passed  through ' 
and  being  'high  above  all  heavens';  in  the  former 
case  simply  giving  the  more  general  idea  of  exaltation, 
in  the  latter  the  thought  that  He  is  lifted,  in  His 
manhood  and  as  our  priest,  above  the  bounds  of  the 
material  and  visible  creation,  and  'set  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high.' 

Such  a  priest  we  need.  His  elevation  and  separation 
from  us  upon  earth  is  essential  to  that  great  and 
continual  work  of  His  which  we  call,  for  want  of  any 
more  definite  name,  His  intercession.    The  High  Priest 


r.  26]  THE  PRIEST  WHOM  WE  NEED        19 

in  the  heavens  presents  His  sacrifice  there  for  ever. 
The  past  fact  of  His  death  on  the  Cross  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world  is  ever  present  as  an  element  deter- 
mining the  direction  of  the  divine  dealings  with  all 
them  that  put  their  trust  in  Him.  That  sacrifice  was 
not  once  only  offered  upon  the  Cross,  but  is  ever,  in 
the  symbolical  language  of  Scripture,  presented  anew 
in  the  heavens  by  Him.  No  time  avails  to  corrupt  or 
weaken  the  efficacy  of  that  blood ;  and  He  has  offered 
one  sacrifice  for  sins  for  ever.  Such  a  priest  we  need, 
to-day,  presenting  the  sacrifice  which,  to-day,  in  our 
w^eakness  and  sinfulness,  we  require. 

We  need  a  priest  who  in  the  heavens  bears  us  in  His 
heart.  As  His  type  in  the  Old  Testament  economy 
entered  within  the  veil  with  the  blood ;  and  when  he 
passed  within  the  curtain  and  stood  before  the  Light 
of  the  Shekinah,  had  on  his  breast  and  on  his  shoulders, 
— the  home  of  love,  the  seat  of  strength— the  names  of 
the  tribes,  graven  on  flashing  stones,  so  our  priest 
within  the  veil  has  your  name  and  mine,  if  we  love 
Him,  close  by  His  heart,  governing  the  flow  of  His 
love,  and  written  on  His  shoulders,  and  on  the  palms 
of  His  pierced  hands,  that  all  His  strength  may  be 
granted  to  us.    '  Such  a  priest  became  us.' 

And  we  need  a  priest  separated  from  the  world,  lifted 
above  the  limitations  of  earth  and  time,  wielding  the 
powers  of  divinity  in  the  hands  that  once  were  laid  in 
blessing  on  the  little  children's  heads.  And  such  a 
priest  we  have.  We  need  a  priest  in  the  heavens, 
whose  presence  there  makes  that  strange  country  our 
home;  and  by  whose  footstep,  passing  through  the 
gates  and  on  to  the  golden  pavements,  the  gate  is  open 
for  us,  and  our  faltering  poor  feet  can  tread  there. 
And  such  a  priest  we  have,  passed  within  the  veil,  that 


20  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

to-day,  in  aspiration  and  prayer;  and  to-morrow  in 
reality  and  person,  where  He  is,  there  we  may  be  also. 
'  Such  a  priest  became  us.' 

We  need  no  other ;  we  do  need  Him.  Oh,  friend ! 
are  you  resting  on  that  sacrifice?  Have  you  given 
your  cause  into  His  hands  to  plead?  Then  the  great 
High  Priest  will  make  you  too  His  priest  to  offer  a 
thank-offering,  and  Himself  will  present  for  ever  the 
sacrifice  that  takes  away  your  sin  and  brings  you  near 
to  God.  '  It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea !  rather,  that  is 
risen  again ' ;  and  whose  death  and  resurrection  alike 
led  on  to  His  ascension  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  where 
for  ever  '  He  maketh  intercession  for  us.' 


THE  ENTHRONED  SERVANT  CHRIST 

'We  have  such  an  high  priest,  who  is  set  on  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of 
the  Majesty  iu  the  heavens ;     2.  A  minister  of  the  sanctuary.'— Heb.  viii.  1,  2. 

A  LITTLE  consideration  will  show  that  we  have  in 
these  words  two  strikingly  different  representations  of 
our  Lord's  heavenly  state.  In  the  one  He  is  regarded 
as  seated  'on  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  the 
Majesty.'  In  the  other  He  is  regarded  as  being,  not- 
withstanding that  session,  a  'minister  of  the  sanc- 
tuary'; performing  priestly  functions  there.  This 
combination  of  two  such  opposite  ideas  is  the  very 
emphasis  and  force  of  the  passage.  The  writer  would 
have  us  think  of  the  royal  repose  of  Jesus  as  full 
of  activity  for  us;  and  of  His  heavenly  activity  as 
consistent  with  deepest  repose.  Resting  He  works; 
working  He  rests.  Reigning  He  serves;  serving  He 
reigns.    So  my  purpose  is  simply  to  deal  with  these 


vs.1.2]  ENTHRONED  SERVANT  CHRIST    21 

two  representations,  and  to  seek  to  draw  from  them 
and  from  their  union  the  lessons  that  they  teach. 

I.  Note,  then,  first,  the  seated  Clirist. 

•We  have  a  high  priest  who' — to  translate  a  little 
more  closely—'  has  taken  His  seat  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  throne  of  the  Majesty  in  the  heavens.'  'Majesty' 
is  a  singular  expression  or  periphrasis  for  God.  It  is 
used  once  again  in  this  letter,  and  seems  probably  to 
have  been  derived  by  the  writer  from  the  Rabbinical 
usage  of  his  times,  when,  as  we  know,  a  certain  mis- 
placed, and  yet  most  natural,  reverential  or  perhaps 
superstitious  awe,  made  men  unwilling  to  name  the 
mighty  name,  and  inclined  rather  to  fall  back  upon 
other  forms  of  speech  to  exi)ress  it. 

So  the  writer  here,  addressing  Hebrews,  steeped  in 
Rabbinical  thought,  takes  one  of  their  own  words  and 
speaks  of  God  as  the  'Majesty  in  the  heavens';  empha- 
sising the  idea  of  sovereignty,  power,  illimitable 
magnificence.  'At  the  right  hand'  of  this  throned 
personal  abstraction,  '  the  Majesty,'  sits  the  Man 
Christ  Jesus. 

Now  the  teaching,  both  of  this  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  and  of  the  whole  New  Testament,  in  reference 
to  the  state  of  our  exalted  Lord,  is  that  His  manhood 
is  elevated  to  this  supreme  dignity.  The  Eternal  Word 
who  was  with  the  Father  in  the  beginning,  before  all 
the  worlds,  went  back  to  '  the  glory  which  He  had  with 
the  Father.'  But  the  new  thing  was  that  there  went, 
too,  that  human  nature  which  Jesus  Christ  indissolubly 
united  with  divinity  in  the  mystery  of  the  lowliness  of 
His  earthly  life.  An  ancient  prophet  foretold  that  in 
the  Messianic  times  there  should  spring  from  the  cut- 
down  stump  of  the  royal  house  of  Israel  a  sucker 
"which,  feeble  at  first,  and  in  strange  contrast  with  the 


22  HEBREWS  [ch.  vm. 

venerable  ruin  from  which  it  arose,  should  grow  so 
swiftly,  so  tall  and  strong,  that  it  should  become  an 
ensign  for  the  nations  of  the  world ;  and  then,  he  adds, 
'and  His  resting-place  shall  be  glory.'  There  was 
a  deeper  meaning  in  the  words,  I  suppose,  than  the 
prophet  knew,  and  we  shall  not  be  chargeable  with 
forcing  New  Testament  ideas  upon  Old  Testament 
words  which  are  a  world  too  narrow  for  them,  if  we  say 
that  there  is  at  least  shadowed  the  great  thought  that 
the  lowly  manhood,  sprung  from  the  humbled  royal 
stock,  shall  grow  up  as  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground, 
without  form  or  comeliness,  and  be  lifted  to  find  its 
rest  and  dwelling-place  in  the  very  central  blaze  of  the 
divine  glory.  We  have  a  High  Priest  w^ho,  in  His 
manhood,  in  which  He  is  knit  to  us,  hath  taken  His 
seat  on  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  the  Majesty  in 
the  heavens. 

Then,  again,  remember  that  whilst  in  such  represen- 
tations as  this  we  have  to  do  with  realities  set  forth 
under  the  symbols  of  time  and  place,  there  is  yet  a  pro- 
found sense  in  which  that  session  of  Jesus  Christ  at  the 
right  hand  of  God  proclaims  both  the  localisation  of 
His  present  corporeal  humanity  and  the  ubiquity  of 
His  presence.  For  what  is  'the  right  hand  of  God'? 
What  is  it  but  the  manifestation  of  His  energies,  the 
forthputting  of  His  power?  And  where  is  that  but 
everywhere,  where  He  makes  Himself  known  ?  Where- 
soever divine  activity  is  manifested,  there  is  Jesus 
Christ.  But  yet,  though  this  be  true,  and  though  it 
may  be  difficult  for  us  to  hold  the  balance  and  mark 
the  dividing  line  between  symbol  and  reality,  we  are 
not  to  forget  that  t/ae  facts  of  Christ's  wearing  now 
a  real  though  glorified  body,  and  of  His  visible 
corporeal  ascension,  and  the  promise  of  a  similar  visible 


vs.  1,2]  ENTHRONED  SERVANT  CHRIST    23 

corporeal  return  to  earth  at  the  end  of  the  days  seem 
to  require  the  belief  that,  above  all  the  heavens,  and 
filling  all  things,  as  that  exalted  manhood  is,  there  is 
yet  what  we  must  call  a  place,  wherein  that  glorified 
body  now  abides.  And  thus  both  the  awful  majestic 
idea  of  omnipresence,  and  the  no  less  majestic  idea  of 
the  present  localisation  in  place  of  the  glorified  Christ, 
are  taught  us  in  the  text. 

And  what  is  the  deepest  meaning  of  it  all?  What 
means  that  majestic  session  at  'the  right  hand  of  the 
throne'?  Before  that  throne  'angels  veil  their  faces.' 
If  in  action,  they  stand ;  if  in  adoration,  they  fall  be- 
fore Him.  Creatures  bow  prostrate.  Who  is  He  that, 
claiming  and  exercising  a  power  which  in  a  creature 
is  blasphemy  and  madness,  takes  His  seat  in  that 
awful  presence  ?  Other  words  of  Scripture  represent 
the  same  idea  in  a  still  more  ^vonderful  form  when 
they  speak  of  '  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb,'  and 
when  He  Himself  speaks  from  heaven  of  Himself  as 
*  set  down  with  My  Father  on  His  throne.' 

If  we  translate  the  symbol  into  colder  words,  it 
means  that  deep  repose,  which,  like  the  divine  rest 
after  creation,  is  not  for  recuperation  of  exhausted 
powers,  but  is  the  sign  of  an  accomplished  purpose  and 
achieved  task,  a  share  in  the  sovereignty  of  heaven, 
and  the  wielding  of  the  energies  of  deity — rest,  royalty, 
and  power  belong  now  to  the  Man  sitting  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  throne  of  God. 

II.  Note,  secondly,  the  servant  Christ. 

*  A  minister  of  the  sanctuary,'  says  my  text.  Now 
the  word  employed  here  for  'minister,'  and  which 
I  have  ventured  variously  to  translate  servant,  means 
one  who  discharges  some  public  official  act  of  service 
either  to  God  or  man,  and  it  is  especially,  though  by  no 


24  HEBREWS  [en.  viii. 

means  exclusively,  employed  in  reference  to  the  service 
of  a  ministering  priest. 

The  allusion  in  the  second  portion  of  my  text  is 
plainly  enough  to  the  ritual  of  the  great  day  of  atone- 
ment, on  which  the  high  priest  once  a  year  went  into 
the  holy  place;  and  tliere,  in  the  presence  of  God 
throned  between  the  cherubim,  made  atonement  for 
the  sins  of  the  people,  by  the  offering  of  the  blood  of 
the  sacrifice.  Thus,  says  our  writer,  that  throned  and 
sovereign  Man  who,  in  token  of  His  accomplished 
work,  and  in  the  participation  of  deity,  sits  hard  by  the 
throne  of  God,  is  yet  ministering  at  one  and  the  same 
time  within  the  veil,  and  presenting  the  might  of  His 
own  sacrifice. 

Put  away  the  metaphor  and  we  just  come  to  this, 
a  truth  which  is  far  too  little  dwelt  upon  in  this  genera- 
tion, that  the  work  which  Jesus  Christ  accomplished 
on  the  Cross,  all  sufficient  and  eternal  as  it  was  in  the 
range  and  duration  of  its  efficacy,  is  not  all  His  work. 
The  past,  glorious  as  it  is,  needs  to  be  supplemented  by 
the  present,  no  less  wonderful  and  glorious,  in  which 
Jesus  Christ  within  the  veil,  in  manners  all  unknown 
to  us,  by  His  presence  there  in  the  power  of  the 
sacrifice  that  He  has  made,  brings  down  upon  men  the 
blessings  that  flow  from  that  sacrifice.  It  is  not  enough 
that  the  offering  should  be  made.  The  deep  teaching, 
the  whole  reasonableness  of  which  it  does  not  belong 
to  us  here  and  now  to  apprehend,  but  which  faith  will 
gladly  grasp  as  a  fact,  though  reason  may  not  be  able 
to  answer  the  question  of  the  why  or  how,  tells  us  that 
the  interceding  Christ  must  necessarily  take  up  the  work 
of  the  suffering  Christ.  Dear  brethren,  our  salvation 
is  not  so  secured  by  the  death  upon  the  Cross  as  to 
make  needless  the  life  beside  the  throne.    Jesus  that 


vs.h2]    ENTHRONED  SERVANT  CHRIST   25 

died  is  the  Christ '  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at 
the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession 
for  us.' 

But,  beyond  that,  may  I  remind  you  that  my  text, 
though  not  in  its  direct  bearing,  yet  in  its  implication, 
suggests  to  us  other  ways  in  which  the  rest  of  Christ  is 
full  of  activity.  '  I  am  among  you  as  He  that  serveth' 
is  true  for  the  heavenly  glory  of  the  exalted  Lord 
quite  as  much  as  for  the  lowly  humiliation  of  His  life 
upon  earth.  And  no  more  really  did  He  stoop  to  serve 
when,  laying  aside  His  garments,  He  girded  Himself 
with  the  towel,  and  wiped  the  disciples'  feet,  than  He 
does  to-day  when,  having  resumed  the  garments  of 
His  glorious  divinity,  and  having  seated  Himself  in 
His  place  of  authority  above  us.  He  comes  forth, 
according  to  the  w^onderful  condescension  of  His  own 
parable,  to  serve  His  servants  who  have  entered  into 
rest,  and  those  also  who  still  toil.  The  glorified  Christ 
is  a  ministering  Christ.  In  us,  on  us,  for  us  He  works, 
in  all  the  activities  of  His  exalted  repose,  as  truly  and 
more  mightily  than  He  did  when  here  He  helped  the 
weaknesses  and  healed  the  sicknesses,  and  soothed  the 
sorrows  and  supplied  the  wants,  and  washed  the  feet, 
of  a  handful  of  poor  men. 

He  has  gone  up  on  high,  but  in  His  rest  He  works. 
He  is  on  the  throne,  but  in  His  royalty  He  serves.  He 
is  absent  from  us,  but  His  power  is  with  us.  The 
world's  salvation  was  accomplished  when  He  cried,  *  It 
is  finished ' !  But  '  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I 
work,'  and  they  who  saw  Him  ascend  into  the 
heavens,  and  longingly  followed  the  diminishing  form 
as  it  moved  slowly  upward,  with  hands  extended  in 
benediction,  as  they  turned  away,  when  there  was 
nothing  more  to  be  seen  but  the  cloud,  •  went  every- 


26  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

where,  the  Lord  working  with  them,  and  confirming 
the  word  with  signs  following.' 

So  then,  let  us  ever  hold  fast,  inextricably  braided 
together,  the  rest  and  the  activity,  the  royalty  and  tlie 
service,  of  the  glorified  Son  of  Man. 

III.  And  now,  in  the  last  place,  let  me  point  to  one  or 
two  of  the  practical  lessons  of  such  thoughts  as  these. 

They  have  a  bearing  on  the  three  categories  of  past, 
present,  future.  For  the  past  a  seal,  for  the  present  a 
strength,  for  the  future  a  prophecy. 

For  the  past  a  seal.  If  it  be  true— and  there  are  few 
historical  facts  the  evidence  for  which  is  more  solid 
or  valid — that  Jesus  Christ  really  went  up  into  the 
heavens,  and  abode  there,  then  that  is  God's  last  and 
most  emphatic  declaration,  'This  is  My  beloved  Son,  in 
whom  I  am  well  pleased.'  The  trail  of  light  that  He 
leaves  behind  Him,  as  He  is  borne  onwards,  falls  on 
the  Cross,  and  tells  us  that  it  is  the  centre  of  the  world's 
history.  For  what  can  be  greater,  what  can  afford  a 
firmer  foundation  for  us  sinful  men  to  rest  our 
confidence  upon,  than  the  death  of  which  the  re- 
compense was  that  the  Man  who  died  sits  on  the  throne 
of  the  universe  ? 

Brethren !  an  ascended  Christ  forces  us  to  believe  in 
an  atoning  Christ.  No  words  can  exaggerate,  nor  can 
any  faith  exalt  too  highly,  or  trust  too  completely,  the 
sacrifice  which  led  straight  to  that  exaltation.  Read 
the  Cross  by  the  light  of  the  throne.  Let  Olivet 
interpret  Calvary,  and  we  shall  understand  what 
Calvary  means. 

Again,  this  double  representation  of  my  text  is  a 
strength  for  the  present.  I  know  of  nothing  that  is 
mighty  enough  to  draw  men's  desires  and  fix  solid 
reasonable  thought  and  love  upon  that  awful  future, 


vs.  1,2]  ENTHRONED  SERVANT  CHRIST    27 

except  the  belief  that  Christ  is  there.  I  think  that 
the  men  who  have  most  deeply  realised  what  a  solemn, 
and  yet  what  a  vague  and  impalpable  thing  the  concep- 
tion of  immortal  life  beyond  the  grave  is,  will  be  most 
ready  to  admit  that  the  thought  is  cold,  cheerless,  full 
of  blank  misgivings  and  of  waste  places,  in  which  the 
speculative  spirit  feels  itself  very  much  a  foreigner. 
There  is  but  one  thought  that  flashes  warmth  into  the 
coldness,  and  turns  the  awfulness  and  the  terror  of 
the  chilling  magnificence  into  attractiveness  and 
homelikeness  and  sweetness,  and  that  is  that  Christ 
is  there  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Foreign 
lands  are  changed  in  their  aspect  to  us  when  we  have 
brothers  and  sisters  there;  and  our  Brother  has  gone 
whither  we  too,  when  we  send  our  thoughts  after  Him, 
can  feel  that  our  home  is,  because  there  He  is.  The 
weariness  of  existence  here  is  only  perpetuated  and 
intensified  when  we  think  of  it  as  i)rolonged  for  ever. 
But  with  Christ  in  the  heavens,  the  heavens  become 
the  home  of  our  hearts. 

In  like  manner,  if  we  only  lay  upon  our  spirits  as  a 
solid  reality,  and  keep  ever  clear  before  us,  as  a  plain 
fact,  the  present  gloi-y  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  activity 
for  us,  oh  !  then  life  becomes  a  different  thing,  sorrows 
lose  their  poison  and  their  barb,  cares  become  trivial, 
anxieties  less  gnawing,  the  weights  of  duty  or  of 
suffering  less  burdensome ;  and  all  things  have  a  new 
aspect  and  a  new  aim.  If  you  and  I,  dear  friends,  can 
see  the  heavens  opened,  and  Jesus  on  the  throne,  how 
petty,  how  unworthy  to  fix  our  desires,  or  to  compel 
our  griefs,  will  all  the  things  here  below  seem.  We 
then  have  the  true  standard,  and  the  littlenesses  that 
swell  themselves  into  magnitude  when  there  is  nothing 
to  compare  them  with  will  shrink  into  their  insignifi- 


28  HEBREWS  [en.  viii. 

cance.  Lift  the  mists  and  let  the  Himalayas  sliine  out ; 
and  what  then  about  the  little  molehills  in  the  fore- 
ground, that  looked  so  big  whilst  the  great  white  mass 
was  invisible  ?  See  Christ,  and  He  interprets,  dwindles, 
and  yet  ennobles  the  world  and  life. 

Lastly,  such  a  vision  gives  us  a  prophecy  for  the 
future.  Thei^e  is  the  measure  of  the  possibilities  of 
human  nature.  A  somewhat  arrogant  saying  affirms, 
•  Whatever  a  man  has  done,  a  man  can  do.'  Whatever 
that  Man  is,  I  may  be.  It  is  possible  that  humanity 
may  be  received  into  the  closest  union  with  divinity, 
and  it  is  certain  that  if  we  knit  ourselves  to  Jesus 
Christ  by  simple  faith  and  lowly,  obedient  love,  what- 
ever He  is  He  will  give  to  us  to  share.  '  Even  as  I  also 
overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father  on  His 
throne,'  is  His  own  measure  of  what  He  will  do  for  the 
men  who  are  faithful  and  obedient  to  Him. 

I  do  not  say  that  there  is  no  other  adequate  proof 
of  immortality  than  the  facts  of  the  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  do  not  know  that  I  should 
be  far  wrong  if  I  ventured  even  on  that  assertion.  But 
I  do  say  that  there  is  no  means  by  which  a  poor  sinful 
soul  will  reach  the  realisation  of  the  possibilities  that 
open  to  it,  except  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  If  we  love 
Him,  anything  unreasonable  and  impossible  is  more 
reasonable  and  possible  than  that  the  Head  shall  be 
glorified  and  the  members  left  to  see  corruption.  If  I 
am  wedded  to  Jesus  Christ,  as  you  all  may  be  if  you 
will  trust  your  souls  to  Him  and  love  Him,  then  God 
will  take  us  and  Him  as  one  into  the  glory  of  His 
presence,  where  we  may  dwell  with  and  in  Christ,  in 
indissoluble  union  through  the  ages  of  eternity. 

My  text  is  the  answer  to  all  doubts  and  fears  for 
ourselves.    It  shows  us  what  the  true  conception  of  a 


ys.1.2]  THE  TRUE  IDEAL  29 

perfect  heaven  is,  the  perfection  of  rest  and  the  per- 
fection of  service.  As  Christ's  heaven  is  the  fuhiess 
of  repose  and  of  activity,  so  shall  that  of  His  servants 
be.  'His  servants  shall  serve  Him' — there  is  the 
activity — 'and  see  His  face' — there  is  the  restful  con- 
templation— 'and  His  name  shall  be  in  their  foreheads' 
— there  is  the  full  participation  in  His  character  and 
glory. 

And  so,  dear  brethren,  for  the  world  and  for  our- 
selves, hope  is  duty  and  despair  is  sin.  Here  is  the 
answer  to  the  question,  Can  I  ever  enter  that  blessed 
land  ?  Here  is  the  answer  to  the  question.  Is  the  dream 
of  perfected  manhood  ever  to  be  more  than  a  dream  ? 
'  We  see  not  j^et  all  things  put  under  Him,  but  we  see 
Jesus,'  and,  seeing  Him,  no  hope  is  absurd,  and  anything 
but  hope  is  falling  beneath  our  privileges.  Then,  dear 
friends,  let  us  look  unto  Him  who,  'for  the  joy  that 
was  set  before  Him,  endured  the  Cross,  despising  the 
shame,  and  is  now  set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Throne  of  God.' 


THE  TRUE  IDEAL 

'See  (saith  He)  that  then  make  all  things  according  to  the  pattern  shewed  to 
thee  in  the  mount.'— 1Iei3.  viii.  5. 

I  DO  not  intend  to  deal  with  the  original  bearing  of 
these  words,  nor  with  the  use  made  of  them  by  the 
writer  of  Hebrews.  Primarily  they  refer  to  the  direc- 
tions as  to  the  Tabernacle  and  its  furniture,  which  are 
given  at  such  length,  and  with  such  minuteness,  in 
Leviticus,  and  are  there  said  to  have  been  received  by 
Moses  on  Sinai.  The  author  of  this  Epistle  attaches  an 
even  loftier  significance  to  them,  as   supporting  his 


30  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

contention  that  the  whole  ceremonial  worship,  as  well 
as  the  Temple  and  its  equipment,  was  a  copy  of 
heavenly  realities,  the  heavenly  sanctuary  and  its  altar 
and  priest.  I  wish  to  take  a  much  humbler  view  of 
the  injunction,  and  to  apply  it,  with  permissible  vio- 
lence, as  a  maxim  for  conduct  and  the  great  rule  for 
the  ordering  of  our  lives.  '  See  that  thou,'  in  thy  shop 
and  office,  and  wherever  thou  mayst  be,  'make  all 
things  according  to  the  pattern  shewed  to  thee  in  the 
mount.'  A  far-reaching,  high-soaring  commandment, 
not  to  be  obeyed  without  much  effort,  and  able  to 
revolutionise  the  lives  of  most  of  us.  There  are  three 
points  in  it:  the  pattern,  its  universal  applicability, 
and  the  place  where  we  get  to  see  it. 

I.  The  pattern. — The  difference  between  noble  and 
ignoble  lives  is  very  largely  that  the  one  has — and 
seeks,  however  partially  and  interruptedly,  to  follow — 
an  ideal  and  the  other  has  not.  Or,  to  put  it  into 
plainer  words,  the  one  man  regulates  his  life  according 
to  momentary  inclinations  and  the  obvious  calls  of 
sense,  business  and  the  like,  and  the  other  man  has,  far 
ahead  and  high  up,  a  great  light  burning,  to  which  he 
is  ever  striving  to  attain.  The  one  has  an  aim  to  which 
he  can  only  approximate,  and  the  other  largely  lives 
from  hand  to  mouth,  as  circumstances  and  sense,  and 
the  recurring  calls  of  material  necessities,  or  tempta- 
tions that  are  put  in  his  way  every  day,  may  dictate. 
And  so,  the  one  turns  out  a  poor  creature,  and  the 
other — God  helping  him — may  turn  out  a  saint.  Which 
are  you  ?  Which  we  are  depends  very  largely  on  the 
clearness  with  which  we  keep  before  us — like  some 
great  mountain  summit  rising  above  the  mists,  and 
stirring  the  ambition  of  every  climber  to  reach  the 
peak,  whei'e  foot  has  never  ti'od — th^    ideal,  to  use 


7.6]  THE  TRUE  IDEAL  31 

modern  language,  or  to  fall  back  upon  the  good  old- 
fashioned  Bible  words,  'the  pattern  shewed  to  us.' 

You  know  that  in  mountain  districts  the  mists  are 
apt  to  gather  their  white  folds  round  the  summits,  and 
that  often  for  many  days  the  dwellers  in  the  plains 
have  to  plod  along  on  their  low  levels,  without  a 
glimpse  of  the  calm  peak.  And  so  it  is  with  our 
highest  ideal.  Earth-born  mists  from  the  undrained 
swamps  in  our  own  hearts  hide  it  too  often  from  our 
eyes,  and  even  when  that  is  not  the  case,  we  are  like 
many  a  mountaineer,  who  never  lifts  an  eye  to  the 
sacred  summit  overhead,  nor  looks  higher  than  his 
own  fields  and  cattle-sheds.  So  it  needs  an  effort  to 
keep  clear  before  us  the  pattern  that  is  high  above  us, 
and  to  make  very  plain  to  ourselves,  and  very  substantial 
in  our  thoughts,  the  unattained  and  untrodden  heights. 
'Not  in  vain  the  distance'  should  'beckon.'  'Forward, 
forward,  let  us  range,'  should  always  be  our  word.  '  See 
that  thou  make  all  things  after  the  pattern,'  and  do  not 
rule  your  lives  according  to  whim,  or  fancy,  or  inclina- 
tion, or  the  temptations  of  sense  and  circumstances. 

To  aim  at  the  unreached  is  the  secret  of  i^erpetual 
youth.  No  man  is  old  as  long  as  he  aspires.  It  is  the 
secret  of  perpetual  growth.  No  man  stagnates  till  he 
has  ceased  to  see,  or  to  believe  in  great  dim  possibilities 
for  character,  as  yet  unrealised.  It  is  the  secret  of  per- 
petual blessedness.  No  man  can  be  desolate  who  has 
for  his  companion  the  unreached  self  that  he  may  be- 
come. And  so  artist,  poet,  painter,  all  live  nobler  lives 
than  they  otherwise  would,  because  they  live,  not  so 
much  with  the  commonplace  realities  round  them,  as 
with  noble  ideals,  be  they  of  melody  or  of  beauty,  or 
of  musical  words  and  great  thoughts.  There  should 
be  the  same  life  with,  and  directed  towards,  attaining 


32  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

the  unattaincd   in  the  moralist,  and  above  all  in  the 
Christian. 

But  then,  do  not  let  us  forget  that  we  are  not  here  in 
our  text,  as  I  am  using  it  in  this  sermon,  relegated  to 
a  pattern  which  takes  its  origin,  after  all,  in  our  own 
thoughts  and  imaginations.  The  poet's  ideal,  the 
painter's  ideal,  varies  according  to  his  genius.  Ours 
has  taken  solidity  and  substance  and  a  human  form, 
and  stands  before  us,  and  says :  '  If  any  man  serve  Me, 
let  him  follow  Me.'  '  See  that  thou  make  all  things 
according  to  the  pattern,'  and  be  thankful  that  we  are 
not  left  to  our  own  thoughts,  or  to  our  brethren's 
teachings,  or  to  abstract  ideas  of  the  true  and  the 
beautiful  and  the  good  for  our  pattern  and  mould  of 
life,  but  that  we  have  the  law  embodied  in  a  Person, 
and  the  ideal  made  actual,  in  our  Brother  and  our 
Saviour.  There  is  the  joy  and  the  blessedness  of  the 
Christian  aim  after  Christian  perfection.  There  is 
something  unsubstantial,  misty,  shadowy,  in  an  ideal 
which  is  embodied  nowhere.  It  is  ghost-like,  and  has 
little  power  to  move  or  to  attract.  But  for  Christians 
the  pattern  is  all  gathered  into  the  one  sweet,  heart- 
compelling  form  of  Jesus,  and  whatever  is  remote  and 
sometimes  cold  in  the  thought  of  an  unattained  aim, 
changes  when  we  make  it  our  supreme  purpose  to  be 
like  Jesus  Christ.  Our  goal  is  no  cold,  solitary  moun- 
tain top.  It  is  the  warm,  loving  heart,  and  companion- 
able purity  and  perfectness  of  our  Brother,  and  when 
we  can,  even  in  a  measure,  reach  that  sweet  resting- 
place,  we  are  wrapped  in  the  soft  atmosphere  of  His 
love.  We  shall  be  like  Him  when  we  see  Him  as  He  is ; 
we  grow  like  Him  here,  in  the  measure  in  which  we  do 
see  Him,  even  darkly.  We  reach  Him  most  surely  by 
loving  Him,  and  we  become  like  Him  most  surely  by 


V.5]  THE  TRUE  IDEAL  88 

loving  Him,  for  lovo  breeds  likeness,  and  they  who  live 
near  the  light  are  drenched  with  the  light,  and  become 
lights  in  their  turn. 

There  is  another  point  here  that  I  would  suggest,  and 
that  is 

II.  The  universal  applicability  of  the  pattern. — '  See 
that  thou  make  all  things.'  Let  us  go  back  to  Leviticus. 
There  you  will  find  page  after  page  that  reads  like  an 
architect's  specification.  The  words  that  I  have  taken 
as  my  text  are  given  in  imniodiatc  connection  with  the 
directions  for  making  the  seven-branched  candlestick, 
which  are  so  minute  and  specific  and  detailed,  that  any 
brass-founder  in  Europe  could  make  one  to-day  '  after 
the  pattern.'  So  many  bowls,  so  many  knops,  so  many 
branches ;  such  and  such  a  distance  between  each  of 
them  ;  and  all  the  rest  of  it — there  it  is,  in  most  prosaic 
minuteness.  Similarly,  we  read  how  many  threads 
and  fringes,  and  how  many  bells  on  the  high  priest's 
robe.  Verse  after  verse  is  full  of  these  details ;  and 
then,  on  the  back  of  them  all,  comes,  *  See  that  thou 
make  all  things  according  to  the  pattern.'  Which 
things  are  a  parable — and  just  come  to  this,  that  the 
minutest  pieces  of  daily  life,  the  most  commonplace 
and  trivial  incidents,  may  all  be  moulded  after  that 
great  example,  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  revelation  that  it  should 
be  so.  The  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  fragmentary 
records  of  it  in  these  four  Gospels,  although  it  only 
covered  a  few  years,  and  is  very  imperfectly  recorded, 
and  in  outward  form  was  passed  under  conditions  most 
remote  from  the  strange  com^jlex  conditions  of  our 
civilisation,  yet  fits  as  closely  as  a  glove  does  to  the 
hand,  to  all  the  necessities  of  our  daily  lives.  Men  and 
women,  young  men  and  maidens,  old  men  and  children, 

0 


34  HEBREWS  [en.  viii. 

professional  men  and  students,  women  in  their  houses, 
men  of  business,  merchants,  and  they  that  sail  the  sea 
and  they  that  dig  in  the  mine,  they  may  all  find  directions 
for  everything  that  they  have  to  do,  in  that  one  life. 

And  here  is  the  centre  and  secret  of  it.  'Except  a 
corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth 
alone.'  Therefore  that  which  is  the  law  for  Jesus  is  the 
law  for  us,  and  the  next  verse  goes  on ;  'he  that  loveth 
his  life  shall  lose  it,'  and  the  next  verse  hammers  the 
nail  farther  in :  'If  any  man  serve  Me,  let  him  follow 
Me.'— Take  that  injunction  and  apply  it,  in  all  the 
details  of  daily  life,  and  you  will  be  on  the  road  to 
reproduce  the  pattern. 

But  remember  the  '  all  things.'  It  is  for  us,  if  we  are 
Christian  people,  to  bring  the  greatest  principles  to 
bear  on  the  smallest  duties,  'Small  duties?'  'Great' 
and  'small'  are  adjectives  that  ought  never  to  be 
tacked  on  to  '  duty.'  For  all  duties  are  of  one  size,  and 
while  we  may  speak,  and  often  do  speak,  very  mis- 
takenly about  things  which  we  vulgarly  consider 
'great,'  or  superciliously  treat  as  'small,'  the  fact  is 
that  no  man  can  tell  what  is  a  great  thing,  and  what  is 
a  small  one.  For  the  most  important  crises  in  a  man's 
life  have  a  strange  knack  of  leaping  up  out  of  the 
smallest  incidents;  just  as  a  whisper  may  start  an 
avalanche,  and  so  nobody  can  tell  what  are  the  great 
things  and  what  the  small  ones.  The  tiniest  pin  in  a 
machine  drops  out,  and  all  the  great  wheels  stop.  The 
small  things  are  the  things  that  for  the  most  part  make 
up  life.  You  can  apply  Christ's  example  to  the  least  of 
them,  and  there  is  very  small  chance  of  your  applying 
it  to  the  great  things  if  you  have  not  been  in  the  way 
of  applying  it  to  the  small  ones.  For  the  small  things 
make  the  habits  which  the  great  ones  test  and  require. 


V.5]  THE  TRUE  IDEAL  85 

So  '  thorough '  is  the  word.  '  See  that  thou  make  all 
things  according  to  the  pattern.' 

I  remember  once  going  up  to  the  roof  of  Milan 
Cathedral,  and  finding  there  stowed  away  behind  a 
buttress — where  I  suppose  one  man  in  fifty  years  might 
notice  it,  a  little  statuette,  as  completely  chiselled,  as 
perfectly  polished,  as  if  it  had  been  of  giant  size,  and 
set  in  the  fa<jade  for  all  the  people  in  the  piazza  to  see. 
That  is  the  sort  of  way  in  which  Christian  men  should 
carve  out  their  lives.  Finish  off  the  unseen  bits  per- 
fectly, and  then  you  may  be  quite  sure  that  the  seen 
bits  will  take  care  of  themselves.  *  See  that  thou  make 
all  things ' — and  begin  with  the  small  ones — *  according 
to  the  pattern.' 

Lastly, 

III.  Where  we  are  to  see  the  pattern. — 'Shewed  to 
thee  in  the  mount.'  Ay,  that  is  where  we  have  to  go  if 
we  are  to  see  it.  The  difference  between  Christian 
men's  convictions  of  duty  depends  largely  on  the  differ- 
ence in  the  distance  that  they  have  climbed  up  the 
hill.  The  higher  you  go,  the  better  you  see  the  lie  of 
the  land.  The  higher  you  go,  the  purer  and  more 
wholesome  the  atmosphere.  And  many  a  thing  which 
a  Christian  man  on  the  low  levels  thought  to  be  per- 
fectly in  accordance  with  '  the  pattern,'  when  he  goes 
up  a  little  higher,  he  finds  to  be  hopelessly  at  variance 
with  it.  It  is  of  no  use  to  lay  down  a  multitude  of 
minute,  red-tape  regulations  as  to  what  Christian 
morality  requires  from  people  in  given  circumstances. 
Go  up  the  hill,  and  you  will  see  for  yourselves. 

Our  elevation  determines  our  range  of  vision.  And 
the  nearer,  and  the  closer,  and  the  deeper  is  our  habitual 
fellowship  with  God  in  Christ,  the  more  lofty  will  be 
our  conceptions  of  what  we  ought  to  be  and  do.    The 


36  HEBREWS  [en.  viir. 

reason  for  inconsistent  lives  is  imperfect  communion, 
and  the  higher  we  go  on  the  mountain  of  vision,  the 
clearer  will  be  our  vision.  On  the  other  hand,  whilst 
we  see  'the  pattern'  in  the  mount,  we  have  to  come 
down  into  the  valley  to  'make'  the  'things.'  The  clay 
and  the  potter's  wheels  are  down  in  Ilinnom,  and  the 
mountain  top  is  above.  You  have  to  carry  your  pattern- 
book  down,  and  set  to  work  with  it  before  you.  There- 
fore, whilst  the  way  to  see  the  pattern  is  to  climb,  the 
way  to  copy  it  is  to  descend.  And  having  faithfully 
copied  what  you  saw  on  the  Mount  of  Vision,  you  will 
see  more  the  next  time  you  go  back ;  for  '  to  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given.' 


THE  ARTICLES  OF  THE  NEW  COVENANT 

I.  god's  writing  on  the  heart 

...  'I  will  put  My  laws  into  their  mind,  and  write  them  in  their  hearts.'— Heb. 
viii.  10. 

We  can  scarcely  estimate  the  shock  to  a  primitive 
Hebrew  Christian  when  he  discovered  that  Judaism 
was  to  fade  away.  Such  an  earthquake  might  seem  to 
leave  nothing  standing.  Now,  the  great  object  of  this 
Epistle  is  to  insist  on  that  truth,  and  to  calm  the  early 
Hebrew  Christians  under  it,  by  showing  them  that  the 
disappearance  of  the  older  system  left  them  no  poorer 
but  infinitely  richer,  inasmuch  as  all  that  was  in  it 
was  more  perfectly  in  Christ's  gospel.  The  writer  has 
accordingly  been  giving  his  strength  to  showing  that, 
all  along  the  line,  Christianity  is  the  perfecting  of 
Judaism,  in  its  Founder,  in  its  priesthood,  in  its  cere- 
monies, in  its  Sabbath.  Here  he  touches  the  great 
central  thought  of  the  covenant  between  God  and 
man,  and  he  falls  back  upon  the  strange  words  of  one 


V.  10]   ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       37 

of  the  old  prophets.  Jeremiah  had  declared  as  empha- 
tically as  he,  the  writer,  has  been  declaring,  that  the 
ancient  system  was  to  melt  away  and  be  absorbed  in  a 
new  covenant  between  God  and  man.  Is  there  any 
other  instance  of  a  religion  which,  on  the  one  side, 
proclaims  its  own  eternal  duration — '  the  Word  of  the 
Lord  endureth  for  ever' — and  on  the  otlier  side  de- 
clares that  it  is  to  be  abrogated,  antiquated,  and  done 
away?  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  had  learned  from 
sacreder  lips  than  Jeremiah's  the  same  lesson,  for  the 
^faster  said  at  the  most  solemn  hour  of  His  career, 
'  This  is  the  blood  of  the  New  Covenant,  which  is  shed 
for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins.' 

These  articles  of  the  New  Covenant  go  very  deep  into 
the  essence  of  Christianity,  and  may  well  be  thought- 
fully pondered  by  us  all,  if  we  wish  to  know  what  the 
specific  differences  between  the  ultimate  revelation  in 
Jesus  Christ,  and  all  other  systems  are.  The  words  I 
have  read  for  my  text  are  the  first  of  these  articles. 

I.  Let  us  try  to  ascertain  what  exactly  is  the  mean- 
ing of  this  great  iDromise. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  that  the  two  clauses  which  I 
have  read  for  my  text  are  not  precisely  parallel,  but 
parallel  with  a  difference.  I  take  it,  that  'mind'  here 
means  very  much  what  we  make  it  mean  in  our 
popular  phraseology,  a  kind  of  synonym  for  the  under- 
standing, or  the  intellectual  part  of  a  man's  nature; 
and  that  '  heart,'  on  the  otlier  hand,  means  something 
a  little  wider  than  it  does  in  our  popular  phraseology, 
and  indicates  not  only  the  affections,  but  the  centre  of 
personality  in  the  human  will,  as  well  as  the  seat  of 
love.  So  these  two  clauses  will  mean,  you  see,  if  we 
carry  that  distinction  with  us,  two  things — the  clear 
perceijtion  of  the  will  of  God,  and  the  coincidence  of 


38  HEBREWS  [CH.  viii. 

that  will  with  our  inclinations  and  desires.  In  men's 
natural  consciences,  there  is  the  law  written  on  their 
minds,  but  alas !  we  all  know  that  there  is  an  awful 
chasm  between  perception  and  inclination,  and  that  it 
is  one  thing  to  know  our  duty,  and  quite  another  to 
wish  to  do  it.  So  the  heart  of  this  great  promise  of 
my  text  is  that  these  two  things  shall  coincide  in  a 
Christian  man,  shall  cover  precisely  the  same  ground; 
as  two  of  Euclid's  triangles  having  the  same  angles 
will,  if  laid  upon  each  other,  coincide  line  for  line  and 
angle  for  angle.  Thus,  says  this  great  promise,  it  is 
possible — and,  if  we  observe  the  conditions,  it  will  be 
actual  in  us — that  knowledge  and  will  shall  cover 
absolutely  and  exactly  the  same  ground.  Inclination 
will  be  duty,  and  duty  will  be  inclination  and  delight. 
Nothing  short  of  such  a  thought  lies  here. 

And  how  is  that  wonderful  change  upon  men  to  be 
accomplished?  '/  will  put,  /  will  write,'  Only  He 
can  do  it.  We  all  know,  by  our  own  experience,  the 
schism  that  gapes  between  the  two  things.  Every  man 
in  the  world  knows  a  vast  deal  more  of  duty  than  any 
man  in  the  world  does.  The  worst  of  us  has  a  standard 
that  rebukes  his  evil,  and  the  best  of  us  has  a  standard 
that  transcends  his  goodness,  and,  alas!  often  tran- 
scends his  inclination.  But  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  comes  armed  with  sufficient  power  to  make  this 
miracle  an  actuality  for  us  all. 

For  it  comes,  does  it  not,  to  substitute  for  all  other 
motives  to  obedience,  the  one  motive  of  love?  They 
but  half  understand  the  gospel  who  dwell  upon  its 
sanctions  of  reward  and  punishment,  and  would  seek 
to  frighten  men  into  goodness  by  brandishing  the  whip 
of  law  before  them,  and  uncovering  the  lid  that  shuts 
in    the    smoke  of    a  hell.    And  they  misinterpret  it 


T.  10]   ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       89 

almost  as  much,  if  there  be  any  such,  who  find  the 
chief  motive  for  Christian  obedience  in  the  glories  of 
the  heavenly  state.  These  are  subordinate  and  legiti- 
mate in  their  secondary  place,  but  the  gospel  appeals 
to  men,  not  merelj^  nor  chiefly  on  the  ground  of  self- 
interest,  but  it  comes  to  them  with  the  one  appeal,  '  If 
ye  love  Me,  keep  My  commandments.'  That  is  how  the 
law  is  written  on  the  heart.  Wherever  there  is  love, 
there  is  a  supreme  delight  in  divining  and  in  satisfying 
the  wish  and  will  of  the  beloved.  His  lightest  word  is 
law  to  the  loving  heart ;  his  looks  are  spells  and  com- 
mandments. And  if  it  is  so  in  regard  of  our  poor, 
imperfect,  human  loves,  how  infinitely  more  so  is  it 
where  the  heart  is  touched  by  true  affection  for  His 
own  infinite  love's  sake,  of  that  'Jesus'  who  is  'most 
desired ! '  The  secret  of  Christian  morality  is  that  duty 
is  changed  into  choice,  because  love  is  made  the  motive 
for  obedience. 

And,  still  further,  let  me  remind  you  how  this  great 
promise  is  fulfilled  in  the  Christian  life,  because  to  have 
Christ  shrined  in  the  heart  is  the  heart  of  Christianity, 
and  Christ  Himself  is  our  law.  So,  in  another  sense 
than  that  which  I  have  been  already  touching,  the  law 
is  written  on  the  heart  on  which,  by  faith  and  self- 
surrender,  the  name  of  Christ  is  written.  And  when  it 
becomes  our  whole  duty  to  become  like  Him,  then  He 
being  throned  in  our  hearts,  our  law  is  within,  and 
Himself  to  His  'darlings'  shall  be,  as  the  poet  has  it 
about  another  matter,  '  both  law  and  impulse.'  Write 
His  name  upon  your  hearts,  and  your  law  of  life  is 
thereby  written  there. 

And,  still  further,  let  me  remind  you  that  this  great 
promise  is  fultillcd,  because  the  very  specific  gift  of 
Christianity  to  men  is  the  gift  of  a  new  nature  which 


40  HEBREWS  [en.  viii. 

is  'created  in  righteousness  and  holiness  that  flows 
from  truth.'  The  communication  of  a  divine  hfe 
kindred  with,  and  percipient  of,  and  submissive  to,  the 
divine  will  is  the  gift  that  Christianity — or,  rather,  let 
us  put  away  the  abstraction  and  say  that  Christ — offers 
to  us  all,  and  gives  to  every  man  who  will  accept  it. 
And  thus,  and  in  other  ways  on  which  I  cannot  dwell 
now,  this  great  article  of  the  New  Covenant  lies  at  the 
very  foundation  of  the  Christian  life,  and  gives  its 
peculiar  tinge  and  cast  to  all  Christian  morality,  com- 
mandment, and  obligation. 

But  let  me  remind  you  how  this  great  truth  has  to 
be  held  with  caution.  The  evidence  of  this  letter  itself 
shows  that,  whilst  the  writer  regarded  it  as  a  distinc- 
tive characteristic  of  the  gospel,  that  by  it  men's  wills 
were  stamped  with  a  delight  in  the  law  of  God,  and  a 
transcript  thereof,  h§^§till  regarded  these  wills  as  un- 
stable, as  capabl^^of  losing  the  sharp  lettering,  of 
having  the  V^ritiiig  of  God  obliterated,  and  still  re- 
garded it  as  possible  that  there  should  be  apostasy  and 
departure. 

So  there  is  nothing  in  this  promise  which  suspends 
the  need  for  effort  and  for  conflict.  Still  'the  flesh 
lusteth  against  the  spirit.'  Still  there  are  parts  of  the 
nature  on  which  that  law  is  not  written.  It  is  the  final 
triumph,  that  the  whole  man,  body,  soul,  and  spirit  is, 
through  and  through,  penetrated  with,  and  joyfully 
obedient  to,  the  commandments  of  the  Lord.  There  is 
need,  too,  not  only  for  continuous  progress,  effort, 
conflict,  in  order  to  keep  our  hearts  open  for  His 
handwriting,  but  also  for  much  caution,  lest  at  any 
time  we  should  mistake  our  own  self-will  for  the 
utterance  of  the  divine  voice.  '  Love,  and  do  what  thou 
wilt,'  said  a  great  Christian  teacher.   It  is  an  unguarded 


V.  10]   ARTICT.ES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       41 

statomont,  but  profoundly  true  as  in  some  respects  it 
is,  it  is  only  absolutely  true  if  we  have  made  sure  that 
the  'thou'  which  'wills'  is  the  heart  on  which  God  has 
written  His  law. 

Only  God  can  do  this  for  us.  The  Israelites  of  old 
were  bidden  '  these  things  which  I  command  thee  this 
day  shall  be  on  thy  heart,'  and  they  were  to  write 
them  on  their  hand,  and  on  the  frontlet  between  their 
eyes,  and  on  their  doorposts.  The  latter  commands 
were  obeyed,  having  been  hardened  into  a  form;  and 
phylacteries  on  the  arm,  and  scrolls  on  the  lintel,  were 
the  miserable  obedience  which  was  given  to  them.  But 
the  complete  writing  on  the  heart  was  beyond  the 
power  of  unaided  man.  A  psalmist  said,  '  I  delight  to 
do  Thy  will,  and  Thy  law  is  within  my  heart.'  But  a 
verse  or  two  after,  in  the  same  psalm,  he  wailed,  'Mine 
iniquities  have  taken  hold  upon  me,  so  that  I  am  not  able 
to  look  up.  They  are  more  than  the  hairs  of  my  head. 
Therefore  my  heart  faileth  me.'  One  Man  has  tran- 
scribed the  divine  will  on  His  will,  without  blurring  a 
letter,  or  omitting  a  clause.  One  Man  has  been  able  to 
say,  in  the  presence  of  the  most  fearful  temptations, 
'Not  My  will,  but  Thine,  be  done.'  One  Man  has  so 
completely  written,  perceived,  and  obeyed  the  law  of 
His  Father,  that,  looking  back  on  all  His  life.  He  was 
conscious  of  no  defect  or  divergence,  either  in  motive  or 
in  act,  and  could  affirm  on  the  Cross,  '  It  is  finished.'  Ho 
who  thus  perfectly  kept  that  divine  law  will  give  to  us, 
if  we  ask  Him,  His  spirit,  to  write  it  upon  our  hearts, 
and  '  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  which  was  in  Christ 
Jesus  shall  make  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.' 

11.  Now,  secondly,  note  the  impassable  gulf  which 
this  fulfilled  promise  makes  between  Christianity  and 
all  other  systems. 


42  HEBREWS  [ch.  vm. 

It  is  a  neic  covenant,  undoubtedly— an  altogether 
new  thing  in  the  world.  For  whatever  other  laws 
have  been  promulgated  among  men  have  had  this  in 
common,  that  they  have  stood  over  against  the  Will 
with  a  whip  in  one  hand,  and  a  box  of  sweets  in  the 
other,  and  have  tried  to  influence  desires  and  inclina- 
tions, first  by  the  setting  forth  of  duty,  then  by 
threatening,  and  then  by  promises  to  obedience.  There 
is  the  inherent  weakness  of  all  which  is  merely  law. 
You  do  not  make  men  good  by  telling  them  in  what 
goodness  consists,  nor  yet  by  setting  forth  the  bitter 
consequences  that  may  result  from  wrong-doing.  All 
that  is  surface  work.  But  there  is  a  power  which  says 
that  it  deals  with  the  will  as  from  within,  and  moves, 
and  moulds,  and  revolutionises  it.  '  You  cannot  make 
men  sober  by  act  of  parliament,'  people  say.  Well  !  I 
do  not  believe  the  conclusion  which  is  generally  drawn 
from  that  statement,  but  it  is  perfectly  true  in  itself. 
To  tell  a  man  what  he  ought  to  do  is  very,  very  little 
help  towards  his  doing  it.  I  do  not  under-estimate  the 
value  of  a  clear  perception  of  duty,  but  I  say  that, 
apart  from  Christianity,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of 
a  hundred,  that  clear  perception  of  duty  is  like  a  clear 
opening  of  a  great  gulf  between  a  man  and  safety, 
which  only  makes  him  recoil  in  despair  with  the 
thought,  '  how  can  I  ever  leap  across  that  ? '  But  the 
peculiarity  of  the  gospel  is  that  it  gives  both  the 
knowledge  of  what  we  ought  to  be ;  and  with  and  in 
the  knowledge,  the  desire,  and  with  and  in  the  know- 
ledge and  the  desire,  the  power  to  be  what  God  would 
have  us  to  be. 

All  other  systems,  whether  the  laws  of  a  nation,  or 
the  principles  of  a  scientific  morality,  or  the  solemn 
voice  that    speaks    in  our    minds    proclaiming    some 


V.  10]  ATITICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       43 

version  of  God's  law  to  every  man  —  all  these  are 
comparatively  impotent.  They  are  like  bill-stickers 
going  about  a  rebellious  province  posting  the  king's 
proclamation.  Unless  they  have  soldiers  at  their  back, 
the  proclamation  is  not  worth  the  paper  it  is  printed 
upon.  But  Christianity  comes,  and  gives  us  that  which 
it  requires  from  us.  So,  in  his  epigrammatic  way, 
St.  Augustine  penetrated  to  the  very  heart  of  this 
article  when  he  prayed,  '  Give  what  Thou  commandest, 
and  command  what  Thou  wilt.' 

III.  Note  the  freedom  and  blessedness  of  this 
fulfilled  promise. 

Not  to  do  wrong  may  be  the  mark  of  a  slave's  timid 
obedience.  Not  to  wish  to  do  wrong  is  the  charter  of 
a  son's  free  and  blessed  service.  There  is  a  higher 
possibility  yet,  reserved  for  heaven — not  to  be  able  to 
do  wa'ong.  Freedom  does  not  consist  in  doing  what  I 
like — that  turns  out,  in  the  long  run,  to  be  the  most 
abject  slavery,  under  the  severest  tyrants.  But  it  con- 
sists in  liking  to  do  what  I  ought.  When  my  wishes 
and  God's  will  are  absolutely  coincident,  then  and  only 
then,  am  I  free.  That  is  no  prison,  out  of  which  we  do 
not  wish  to  go.  Not  to  be  confined  against  our  wills, 
but  voluntarily  to  elect  to  move  only  within  the  sacred, 
charmed,  sweet  circle  of  the  discerned  will  of  God, 
is  the  service  and  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God. 

Alas  !  there  are  a  great  many  Christians,  so-called, 
who  know  very  little  about  such  blessedness.  To  many 
of  us  religion  is  a  burden.  It  consists  of  a  number 
of  prohibitions  and  restrictions  and  commandments 
equally  unwelcome.  '  Do  not  do  this,'  and  all  the  while 
I  would  like  to  do  it.  'Do  that,'  and  all  the  while 
I  do  not  want  to  do  it.  '  Pray,  because  it  is  your  duty  ; 
go  to  chapel,  because  you  think  it  is  God's  will;  give 


44r  HEBREWS  [en.  viii. 

money  that  you  would  much  rather  keep  in  your 
pockets :  abstain  from  certain  things  that  you  hunger 
for ;  do  other  things  that  you  do  not  at  all  desire  to  do, 
nor  find  any  pleasure  in  doing.'  That  is  the  religion  of 
hosts  of  people.  They  have  need  to  ask  themselves 
whether  their  religion  is  Christ's  religion.  Ah ! 
brethren ! — '  My  yoke  is  easy  and  My  burden  light ; 
not  because  the  things  that  He  bids  and  forbids  are 
less  or  lighter  than  those  which  the  world's  morality 
requires  of  its  followers,  but  because,  so  to  speak, 
the  yoke  is  padded  with  the  velvet  of  love,  and  inclina- 
tion coincides,  in  the  measure  of  our  true  religion,  with 
the  discerned  will  of  God. 

IV.  Lastly,  one  word  about  the  condition  of  the 
fulfilment  of  this  promise  to  us. 

As  I  have  been  saying,  it  is  sadly  far  ahead  of  the 
experience  of  crowds  of  so-called  Christians.  There 
are  still  great  numbers  of  professing  Christians,  and  I 
doubt  not  that  1  speak  to  some  such,  on  whose  hearts 
only  a  very  few  of  the  syllables  of  God's  will  are 
written,  and  these  very  faintly  and  blotted.  But 
remember  that  the  fundamental  idea  of  this  whole 
context  is  that  of  a  covenant,  and  a  covenant  implies 
two  parties,  and  duties  and  obligations  on  the  part  of 
each.  If  God  is  in  covenant  with  you,  you  are  in 
covenant  with  God.  If  lie  makes  a  promise,  there  is 
something  for  you  to  do  in  order  that  that  promise 
may  be  fulfilled  to  you. 

What  is  there  to  do  ?  First,  and  last,  and  midst, 
keep  close  to  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  measure  in  which 
we  keep  ourselves  in  continual  touch  with  Him,  will 
His  law  be  written  upon  our  hearts.  If  we  are  for 
ever  twitching  away  the  paper;  if  we  are  for  ever 
flinging  blots  and  mud  upon  it,  how  can  we  expect  the 


V.  10]  ARTICLES  OF  NE\y  COVENANT       45 

transcript  to  bo  clear  and  legible  ?  Wo  must  keep 
still  that  God  may  write.  We  must  wait  habitually 
in  llis  presence.  When  the  astronomer  wishes  to  get 
the  image  of  some  far-off  star,  invisible  to  the  eye  of 
sense,  he  regulates  the  motion  of  his  sensitive  plate,  so 
that  for  hours  it  shall  continue  right  beneath  the 
unseen  beam.  So  we  have  to  still  our  hearts,  and  keep 
their  plates — the  fleshy  tables  of  them — exposed  to  the 
heavens.  Then  the  likeness  of  God  will  be  stamped 
there. 

Be  faithful  to  what  is  written  there,  which  is  the 
Christian  shape  of  the  heathen  commandment — *Do 
the  duty  that  lies  nearest  thee ;  so  shall  the  next  be- 
come plainer.'  Be  faithful  to  the  line  that  is  *  written,' 
and  there  will  be  more  on  the  tablet  to-morrow. 

Now  this  is  a  promise  for  us  all.  However  blotted 
and  blurred  and  defaced  by  crooked,  scrawling  letters, 
like  a  child's  copy-book,  with  its  first  pot-hooks  and 
hangers,  our  hearts  may  be,  there  is  no  need  for  any  of 
us  to  say  despairingly,  as  we  look  on  the  smeared  page, 
'  What  I  have  written  I  have  writtoi^.'  IIv^  is  ablts  t^ 
blot  it  all  out,  to  *  take  away  the  hand-writing ' — our 
own — '  that  is  against  us,  nailing  it  to  His  Cross,'  and  to 
give  us,  in  our  inmost  spirits,  a  better  knowledge  of, 
and  a  glad  obedience  to.  His  discerned  and  holy  will. 
So  that  each  of  us,  if  we  choose,  and  will  observe  the 
conditions,  may  be  able  to  say  with  all  humility,  '  Lo  ! 
I  come,  in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is  written  of  7ne, 
I  delight  to  do  Thy  will,  yea!  Thy  law  is  within  my 
heart.' 


n.  THEIR  GOD,  MY  PEOPLE 

'I  will  be  to  them  a  God,  and  they  shall  be  to  Me  a  people.'— Heb.  vlll.  10. 

Two  mirrors  set  over  against  each  other  reflect  one 
another  and  themselves  in  each  other,  in  long  per- 
spective. Two  hearts  that  love,  with  similar  reciproca- 
tion of  influence,  mirror  back  to  each  other  their  own 
affections.  *  I  am  thine ;  thou  art  mine,'  is  the  very 
mother-tongue  of  love,  and  the  source  of  blessedness. 
All  loving  hearts  know  that.  That  mutual  surrender, 
and,  in  surrender,  reciprocal  possession,  is  lifted  up  here 
into  the  highest  regions.  'I  will  be  their  God,  they 
shall  be  My  people.'  That  was  the  fundamental  promise 
of  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  laid  at  Sinai — '  Ye  shall 
be  unto  Me  a  people  for  a  possession.'  All  through 
the  Old  Testament  we  find  it  re-echoed ;  and  yet  the 
interpenetration  of  God  and  the  people  was  imperfect 
and  external  in  that  anefenr  covenant. 

Go  uie  v.^ILa.  Lere,  falling  back  upon  the  marvellous 
prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  regards  this  as  being  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  Christianity,  that  what  was  shadowed 
in  Israel's  possession  of  God  and  God's  possession  of 
Israel,  is,  in  substance,  blessedly  and  permanently 
realised  in  the  relations  of  God  to  Christian  souls,  and 
of  Christian  souls  to  God. 

Not  only  is  there  this  mutual  possession,  as  expressed 
by  the  two  halves  of  my  text,  but  each  half,  when 
cleft  and  analysed,  reveals  the  necessity  for  a  similar 
reciprocity.  For  God's  giving  of  Himself  to  us  is 
nothing  to  us  without  our  taking  of  God  for  ours  ;  and, 
in  like  manner,  our  giving  of  ourselves  to  God,  would 
be  all  incomplete,  unless  in  His  strange  love,  He  stooped 


v.io]  ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       47 

from  amidst  tho  praises  of  Israel  to  accept  the  poor 
gifts  that  wo  bring. 

So  tho  duality  of  my  text  breaks  up  into  a  double 
dualism,  and  we  have  God  giving  Himself  to  us,  and 
His  gift  realised  in  our  acceptance  of  Ilira  for  ours ; 
and  then  we  have  our  giving  of  ourselves  to  God,  and 
the  gift  realised  and  ratified  in  His  acceptance  of  us 
for  His.  And  to  these  four  points,  briefly,  I  wish  to 
turn. 

I.  'I  will  be  to  them  a  God.'  That  is  God's  gift  of 
Himself  to  us. 

The  words  go  far  deeper  than  the  necessary  divine 
relation  to  all  Ilis  creatures.  He  is  a  God  to  every 
star  that  burns,  and  to  every  worm  that  creeps,  and  to 
every  gnat  that  dances  for  a  moment.  But  there  is  a 
closer  relation,  and  more  bl'  ssed  than  that.  He  is  a 
God  to  every  man  that  lives,  lavishing  upon  him  mani- 
festations of  His  divinity,  and  sustaining  him  in  life. 
But  besides  these  great  and  wondrous  universal  rela- 
tions which  spring  from  the  very  fact  of  creative  power 
and  creatural  independence,  there  is  a  tenderer,  a  truer 
relationship  of  heart  to  heart,  of  spirit  to  spirit,  which 
is  set  forth  here  as  the  prerogative  of  the  men  who 
trust  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  special  does  not  contradict 
or  deny  the  universal,  the  universal  does  not  exclude 
the  special—'  I  will  be  a  God  to  them,'  in  a  deeper,  more 
blessed,  soul-satisfying,  and  vital  sense  than  to  others 
around  them. 

And  what  lies  in  that  great  promise  passes  the  wit 
of  man  and  the  tongues  of  angels  fully  to  conceive  and 
tell.  All  that  lies  in  that  majestic  monosyllable,  which 
is  shorthand  for  life,  and  light,  and  all  pcrfectness,  lived 
in  a  living  person  who  has  a  heart,  tliat  word  God — all 
that  is   included   in   that  name,   God  will  be    to  you 


48  HEBREWS  [cn.viii. 

and  me,  if  we  like  to  have  Him  for  such.  *  I  will  be  a 
God  to  them ' — then  round  about  them  shall  be  cast  the 
bulwark  of  the  everlasting  arm  and  the  everlasting 
purpose.  *  I  will  be  a  God  to  them ' — then  in  all  dark 
places  there  will  be  a  light,  and  in  all  perplexities  there 
will  be  a  path,  and  in  all  anxieties  there  will  be  quiet- 
ness, and  in  all  troubles  there  will  be  a  hidden  light  of 
joy,  and  in  every  circumstance  life  will  be  saturated 
wnth  an  almighty  presence,  which  shall  make  the 
rough  places  i^lain  and  the  crooked  things  straight. 
'I  will  be  a  God  to  them' — then  their  desires,  their 
hungerings  after  blessedness,  their  seekings  after  good, 
need  no  longer  roam  open-mouthed  and  empty,  through- 
out a  waste  world  where  there  is  only  scanty 
fodder  enough  to  keep  them  from  expiring  but  never 
food  enough  to  satisfy  them;  but  in  Him  longings 
and  hopes  will  all  find  their  appropriate  satisfaction. 
And  there  will  be  rest  in  God,  and  whatsoever  aspira- 
tions after  loftier  goodness  may  have  to  be  cherished, 
and  whatsoever  base  hankerings  still  lingering  have  to 
be  fought,  the  strength  of  a  present  God  will  enable  us  to 
aspire,  and  not  to  be  disappointed,  and  to  cast  ourselves 
into  the  conflict,  and  be  ever  victorious.  'I  will  be  to 
them  a  God,'  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  everything  which 
my  complex  nature  can  require  I  shall  find  in  Him. 

It  says,  too,  that  all  that  Godhood,  in  all  the  incom- 
prehensible sweep  of  its  attributes,  is  on  my  side,  if  I 
will.  They  tell  us  that  there  are  rays  in  the  spectrum 
which  no  eye  can  see,  but  which  yet  have  mightier 
chemical  and  other  influences  than  those  that  are 
visible.  The  spectrum  of  God  is  not  all  visible,  but 
beyond  the  limits  of  comprehension  there  lie  dark 
energies  which  are  full  of  blessedness  and  of  power  for 
us.    *I  will  be  to  them  a  God.'    We  can  understand 


T.  10]  ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       49 

something  of  what  that  name  signifies;  and  all  that 
is  enlisted  for  us.  There  is  much  which  that  name 
signifies  that  we  do  not  understand,  and  all  that,  too, 
is  working  on  our  side. 

Now,  remember,  that  this  giving  of  God  to  us  by 
Himself  is  all  concentrated  in  one  historical  act.  He 
gave  Himself  to  us,  when  He  spared  not  His  only- 
begotten  Son.  My  text  is  one  of  the  articles  of  the 
New  Covenant.  And  what  scaled  and  confirmed  all  the 
articles  of  that  Covenant  ?  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ. 
It  was  when  '  God  spared  not  His  own  Son,'  and  when 
the  Son  spared  not  Himself,  on  that  Cross  of  Calvary, 
that  there  came  to  pass  the  ratifying  and  filling  out 
and  perfecting  of  the  ancient,  typical  promise,  '  I  will 
be  to  them  a  God.'  Tliere  was  the  unspeakable  gift  in 
which  God  was  given  to  humanity. 

II.  And  now  we  have  to  take  the  gi%-ing  God  and 
make  Him  our  God. 

I  need  not  do  more  than  just  glance  for  a  moment  at 
that  thought,  for  it  is  familiar  enough  to  us  all.  Here 
is  a  treasure  of  gold  lying  in  the  road.  Anybody  that 
picks  it  up  may  have  it;  the  man  who  does  not  pick  it 
up  does  not  get  it,  though  it  is  there  for  him  to  lay  his 
fingers  on.  Here  is  a  river  flowing  past  your  door. 
You  may  put  a  pipe  into  it,  and  bring  all  its  wealth 
and  refreshment  into  your  house,  and  use  it  for  the 
quenching  of  your  thirst,  for  the  cleansing  of  your 
person,  for  the  cooking  of  your  victuals,  for  the 
watering  of  your  gardens.  And  here  is  all  the  fulness 
of  God  welling  past  us,  but  Niagara  may  thunder  close 
by  a  man's  door,  and  he  may  perish  of  thirst.  '  I  will 
be  to  them  a  God.'  What  does  that  matter  if  I  do  not 
turn  round  and  say:  'O  Lord  I  Thou  art  my  God'? 
Nothing  I    Beggars  come  to  your  door,  and  you  give 

D 


50  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

them  a  bih  of  bread,  and  they  go  away,  and  you  find  it 
flung  into  the  mud  round  the  corner.  God  gives  U9 
Himself.  I  wonder  how  mau}'^  of  us  have  tossed  the 
gift  over  the  first  hedge,  and-  left  it  there.  Yet  all  the 
while  we  are  dying  for  want  of  it,  and  do  not  know 
that  we  are. 

Brethren !  you  have  to  enclose  a  bit  of  the  prairie 
for  your  very  own,  and  put  a  hedge  round  it,  and 
cultivate  it,  and  you  will  get  abundant  fruits.  You 
have  to  translate  'their'  into  the  singular  possessive 
pronoun,  and  say  'mine,'  and  put  out  the  hand  of  faith, 
and  make  Him  in  very  deed  yours.  Then,  and  only 
then,  is  this  giving  perfected. 

III.  In  the  third  place,  we  have  to  give  ourselves  to 
God. 

We  begin — as  our  text,  profoundly,  with  all  its  sim- 
plicity, begins — with  an  act  of  God  to  us.  He  enters 
into  loving  relations  with  me,  and  it  is  only  when  I  am 
melted  and  encouraged  by  the  perception  and  reception 
of  these  relations  that  there  comes  the  answering  throb 
in  my  heart.  The  mirror  in  our  spirit  has  the  other 
one  reflected  upon  it;  then  it  flings  back  its  own 
reflection  to  the  parent  glass.  God  comes  first  with 
the  love  that  He  pours  over  us  poor  creatures,  and 
when  '  we  have  known  and  believed  the  love  that  God 
hath  to  us,'  then,  and  only  then,  do  we  throb  back  the 
reflected,  ay,  the  kindred  love.  For  love  is  the  same 
thing  in  the  divine  heart  and  in  my  heart.  In  the 
other  bonds  that  unite  men  to  God,  w^hat  is  man's 
corresponds  to  what  is  God's.  My  faith  corresponds  to 
His  faithfulness.  My  dependence  corresponds  to  His 
sufficiency.  My  weak  clinging  answers  to  His  strong 
grasp;  my  obedience  to  His  commanding.  But  my 
luve  not  only  corresponds  to,  as  the  concave  does  to  the 


v.io]  ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       51 

convex,  but  it  assimilates  to,  and  is  the  likeliest  thing 
in  the  creature  to,  the  love  of  the  Creator.  And  so 
there  is  a  parallel,  wonderful  and  blessed,  between  the 
giving  love  which  says  '  I  will  be  to  them  a  God,'  and 
the  recipient  love  which  responds,  *  We  are  to  Thee  a 
people.' 

Remember,  too,  that  not  only  is  there  this  general 
resemblance,  but  that  our  love  manifests  itself  to  God 
— I  was  going  to  say,  just  as  God's  love  manifests  itself 
to  us,  though,  of  course,  there  are  differences  that  I 
do  not  need  to  touch  upon  here,  in  the  act  of  self- 
surrender.  He  gave  Himself  to  us.  Ay !  and  we  may 
use  another  form  of  speech  still  more  emphatic,  and 
say,  He  gave  up  Himself.  For,  surely,  difficult  as  it 
may  be  for  us  to  keep  our  footing  in  those  lofty  heights 
where  the  atmosphere  is  so  rare,  the  gift  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  surrender;  when  the  Father  spared  not 
His  own  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all. 

And,  brethren,  what  is  the  surrender  of  the  man  who 
receives  the  love  of  God  ?  In  what  region  of  my  nature 
is  that  giving  up  of  myself  most  imperative  and 
blessed?  In  my  will.  The  will  is  the  man.  The 
centre-point  of  every  human  being  is  the  will,  and  it 
is  no  use  for  us  to  talk  about  our  having  given  our- 
selves to  God,  in  response  and  in  thankfulness  to  His 
gift  of  Himself  to  us,  vmless  we  come  and  say  '  Lord ! 
not  my  will,  but  Thine ' ;  and  bow  ourselves  in  un- 
reluctant  and  constant  submission  to  His  command- 
ments, and  to  all  His  will.  Brethren,  we  give  ourselves 
to  God  when,  moved  by  His  giving  of  Himself  to  us, 
we  yield  up  our  love  to  Him,  and  love  never  rests  until 
it  has  yielded  up  its  will  to  the  beloved.  He,  indeed, 
gives,  asking  for  nothing ;  but  He  gives  in  a  still 
deeper  sense,  asking  for  everything;   and  that  every- 


52  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

thing  is  myself.  Aud  I  yield  myself  to  Him  in  the 
measure  in  which  I  set  my  thankful  love  upon  Him, 
and  then  bow  myself  as  His  servant,  in  humble  con- 
secration to  Himself,  with  all  my  heart  and  soul  and 
mind  and  strength. 

IV.  Lastly,  God  takes  us  for  His. 

'They  shall  be  My  people.'  That  is  wonderful.  It 
is  strange  that  we  can  imitate  God,  in  a  certain  fashion, 
in  the  gift  of  self;  but  it  is  yet  more  strange  and 
blessed  that  God  accepts  that  gift,  and  counts  it  as  one 
of  His  treasures  to  possess  us.  One  of  the  psalmists 
had  a  deep  insight  into  the  miracle  of  the  divine 
condescension  when  he  said  'He  was  extolled  with 
my  tongue.'  Strange  that  the  loftiest  of  creatures 
should  be  lifted  higher  by  the  poor  tremulous  lever  of 
my  praises !  and  yet  He  is  so.  He  takes  as  His,  such 
poor  creatures,  full  of  imperfection,  and  tremulous 
faith,  and  disproved  love,  as  you  and  I  know  ourselves 
to  be,  and  He  says  '  My  people.'  '  They  shall  be  Mine,' 
My  jewels,  says  He,  'in  the  day  which  I  make.'  Oh, 
brethren!  it  sometimes  seems  to  me  that  it  is  more 
wonderful  that  God  should  take  me  for  His,  than  that 
He  should  give  me  Himself  for  mine. 

Have  you  given  yourself  to  Him  ?  Have  you  begun 
where  He  begins,  taking  first  the  gift  that  is  freely 
given  to  you  of  God,  even  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  God 
dwells,  and  who  makes  all  the  Godhead  yours,  for  your 
very  own  ?  Have  you  taken  God  for  yours,  by  faith  in 
that  Lord  '  who  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me?' 
And  then  smitten  by  His  love  and  having  the  chains  of 
self  melted  by  the  fire  of  His  great  mercy,  have  you 
said,  '  Lo !  truly  I  am  Thy  servant.  Thou  hast  loosed 
my  bonds '  ?  Dear  brethren,  you  never  own  yourselves 
till  you  give  yourselves  away;  and  you  never  will  give 


V.  10]  ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       53 

yourselves  to  God,  to  be  His,  unless  with  all  your  heart 
and  strength  you  cling  to  the  rock-truth,  tliat  God  has 
given  Himself  to  every  man  who  will  take  Him,  in 
Jesus  Christ,  to  be  that  man's  God  for  ever  and  ever. 


III.   'ALL  SHALL  KNOW  ME* 

'They  shall  not  teach  every  man  his  neighbour,  and  every  man  his  brother, 
paying.  Know  the  Lord :  for  all  shall  know  Me,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest.'— 
Heb.  Tiii.  11. 

In  former  sermons  I  have  tried  to  bring  out  the  force 
of  the  preceding  two  articles  of  '  the  New  Covenant.' 
These  two  were  the  substitution  of  inward  inclination 
and  impulse  for  the  rigid  bonds  of  an  external  command- 
ment, and  the  substitution  of  a  real,  spiritual,  mutual 
possession  of  God  and  His  people  for  the  mere  outward 
relationship  that  existed  between  Israel  and  Jehovah. 
My  text  is  the  third  article  of  the  New  Covenant.  It 
lays  hold,  like  the  other  tw^o,  of  something  that  charac- 
terised the  ancient  dispensation,  declares  its  imperfec- 
tion, recognises  its  prophetic  aspect,  and  asserts  that 
all  which  the  former  merely  shadowed  and  foretold  is 
accomplished  in  Jesus  Christ. 

In  old  days  there  had  been  some  direct  communication 
between  God  and  a  chosen  few,  the  spiritual  aristocracy 
of  the  nation,  and  they  spake  the  things  that  they  had 
heard  of  God  to  the  multitude  who  had  had  no  such 
communication.  My  text  saj's  that  all  this  is  swept 
away,  and  that  the  prerogative  of  every  Christian  man 
is  direct  access  to,  communication  with,  and  instruction 
from,  God  Himself.  The  text  has  two  things  in  it;  the 
promise,  which  is  the  essence  of  it,  and  a  consequence 
which  is  deduced  from  that  promise,  and  sets  forth  its 


54  HEBREWS  [en.  viii. 

results  in  a  graphic  manner.  'They  all  shall  know 
Mo,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest';  that  is  the  real 
promise.  '  They  shall  no  more  teach  every  man  his 
neighbour  .  .  .  saying,  Know  the  Lord,'  is  but  a  result 
thereof. 

I.  Now,  I  ask  you  to  look  with  me  at  what  this  great 
promise  means. 

•  They  shall  know  Me.'  Perhaps  I  can  best  explain 
what  I  take  it  to  mean  by  commencing  with  an  analogy 
or  two  which  may  help  us  to  apprehend  w^hat  is  the 
significance  of  these  words.  We  all  know  the  difference 
between  hearsay  and  sight.  We  may  have  read  books 
of  travel,  and  tell  of  some  scene  of  great  natural  beauty 
or  historic  interest,  and  may  think  that  we  understand 
all  about  it,  but  it  is  always  an  epoch  when  our  OAvn 
eyes  look  for  the  first  time  at  the  snowy  summit  of  an 
Alp,  or  for  the  first  time  at  the  Parthenon  on  its  rocky 
height.  We  all  know  the  difference  between  hearsay 
and  experience.  We  read  books  of  the  poets  that 
portray  love  and  sorrow,  and  the  other  emotions  that 
make  up  our  throbbing,  changeful  life ;  but  we  need  to 
go  through  the  mill  ourselves  before  we  understand 
what  the  grip  of  the  iron  teeth  of  the  harrow  of  afflic- 
tion is,  and  we  need  to  have  had  our  own  hearts  dilated 
by  a  true  and  blessed  affection,  before  we  know  the 
sweetness  of  love.  Men  may  tell  us  about  it,  but  we 
have  to  feel  it  ourselves  before  we  know. 

To  come  still  closer  to  the  force  of  my  text,  we  all 
know  the  difference  between  hearing  about  a  man  and 
making  his  acquaintance.  We  may  have  been  told 
much  about  him,  and  be  familiar  with  his  character, 
as  we  think,  but,  when  we  come  face  to  face  with  him, 
and  actually  for  ourselves  experience  the  magnetism  of 
his  presence,  or  fall  under  the  direct  intluence  of  his 


V.  11]   ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       55 

character,  then  we  know  that  our  former  acquaintance 
with  him,  by  moans  of  hearsay,  was  but  superficial  and 
shadowy.  '1  have  heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the 
ear,  but  now  mine  eyes  see  thee.'  Can  you  say  that  ? 
If  so,  you  understand  my  text — '  They  shall  no  more 
teach  every  man  .  .  .  his  brother,  «aying.  Know  the 
Lord,  and  make  acquaintance  with  Him'  as  if  lie  were 
a  stranger — for  '  all  shall  know  Me,  from  the  least  to 
the  greatest.' 

There  is  all  the  difference  between  knowing  about 
God  and  knowing  God;  just  the  difference  that  there 
is  between  dogma  and  life,  between  theology  and 
religion.  We  may  have  all  articles  of  the  Christian 
creed  clear  in  our  understandings,  and  may  owe  our 
possession  of  them  to  other  people's  teaching;  we  may 
even,  in  a  sense,  believe  them,  and  yet  they  may  be 
absolutely  outside  of  our  lives,  and  it  is  only  when 
they  pass  into  the  very  substance  of  our  being,  and 
influence  the  springs  of  our  conduct — it  is  only  then 
that  we  know  God. 

Now,  I  maintain  that  this  acquaintance  with  Him 
is  what  is  meant  in  our  text.  It  may  not  include  any 
more  intellectual  propositions  about  Him  than  a  man 
had  before  he  knew  Him,  but  it  has  turned  doctrines 
into  fact,  and  instead  of  the  mere  hearsay  and  tradi- 
tional religion,  which  is  the  only  religion  of  millions,  it 
has  brought  the  true  heart-grasp  of  Him,  which  is  the 
only  thing  worth  calling  a  knowledge  of  God.  For  let 
me  remind  you  that,  whilst  we  may  know  a  science  or 
proposition  by  the  exercise  of  our  understandings  in 
appropriate  ways,  that  is  not  how  we  know  people. 
And  God  is  a  person,  and  to  know  Him  does  not  mean 
to  understand  uhuut  Him,  but  to  be  on  speaking  terms 
with  Him,  to  have  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  Him, 


56  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

to  'summer  and  winter'  with  Him,  and  so,  by  experi- 
ence, to  verify  the  things  that  before  were  mere 
doctrines.  Now,  at  least  the  large  majority  of  you  call 
yourselves  believers  in  Christianity.  I  want  you  to 
ask  yourselves,  and  I  would  ask  myself,  whether  my 
religion  is  knowing  about  God  or  knowing  Him; 
whether  it  is  all  made  up  of  a  set  of  truths  which  I 
assent  to,  mainly  because  I  am  not  sufficiently  in- 
terested in  them  to  contradict  them,  or  whether  these 
truths  have  become  the  very  substance  of  my  life.  I 
do  not  believe  in  a  religion  without  a  dogma — I  was 
going  to  say,  I  believe  still  less  in  a  dogma  without 
religion;  and  that  is  the  Christianity  of  hosts  of  pro- 
fessing Christians.  It  is  as  useless  as  are  the  dried 
seeds  that  rattle  in  the  withered  head  of  a  poppy  in  the 
autumn,  or  as  the  shrivelled  kernel  that  sounds  in  the 
hoUowness  of  a  half-empty  nut. 

Remember,  dear  brethren,  that  to  know  God  is  to 
become  acquainted  with  Him,  and  that  only  on  the 
path  of  such  familiar,  friendly,  loving  intercourse  and 
communion  with  Him,  can  men  find  the  confirmation 
of  the  truths  about  Him  which  make  up  the  eternal 
revelation  of  Him  in  the  gospel.  '  We  know ' — that 
is  a  valid  certainty,  arising  from  experience,  and  it  has 
as  good  a  right  to  call  itself  knowledge  as  have  the 
processes  by  which  men  come  to  be  sure  about  the 
physical  facts  of  this  material  universe.  Nay  !  I  would 
even  go  further,  and  say  that  the  fact  that  such  a  con- 
tinual stream  of  witnesses,  through  all  the  generations, 
have  been  able  to  say,  '  I  have  tasted  and  I  have  seen 
that  God  is  good,'  is  to  be  taken  into  account  by  all 
impartial  searchers  after  truth.  And  if  men  want  to 
square  their  creeds  with  all  the  facts  of  humanity,  let 
them  not  omit,  in  their  consideration  of  the  claims 


V.  11]  AKTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       57 

of  Christian  evidence,  this  fact,  that  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  men  have  said,  and  their  lives 
have  witnessed  to  its  truths,  'We  know  in  whom  wo 
have  beh'cved,  and  that  He  is  able  to  keep  us.  Wo 
know  that  Ave  are  of  God.'  Dear  brethren  !  the  whole 
case  for  Christianity  cannot  he  appreciated  from  out- 
side. '  Taste  and  see.'  My  text  shows  us  the  more  true 
way.  If  we  will  accept  that  covenant  we  shall  know 
the  Lord  in  the  depths  of  our  hearts. 

II.  Notice  how  far  this  promise  extends. 

'They  all,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  shall  know.' 
There  is  to  be  no  distinction  of  rank  or  age,  or  endow- 
ment, w^hich  shall  result  in  some  of  the  people  of  God 
having  a  position  from  which  any  of  the  others  are 
altogether  shut  out. 

The  writer  is,  of  course,  contrasting  in  his  mind, 
though  he  does  not  express  the  contrast,  the  condition 
of  things  of  old,  when,  as  I  said,  the  spiritual  aristo- 
cracy of  the  nation  received  communications  which 
they  then  imparted  to  their  fellows.  In  the  morning 
dawn  the  highest  summits  catch  the  rays  first,  but  as 
the  sun  rises  it  floods  the  lower  levels,  and  at  mid-day 
shines  right  down  into  the  depths  of  the  cavities.  So 
the  world  is  now  flooded  with  the  light  of  Christ ; 
and  all  Christian  men  and  w^omen,  by  virtue  of  their 
Christian  character,  do  possess  the  unction  from  the 
Holy  One,  in  which  lie  the  potency  and  the  promise  of 
the  knowledge  of  all  things  that  are  needful  to  be 
known  for  life  and  godliness.  This  is  the  true  demo- 
cracy of  the  gospel— the  universal  possession  of  the  life 
of  Christ  through  the  Spirit. 

Now,  if  that  be  so,  then  it  is  by  no  means  a  truth 
to  be  kept  simply  for  the  purpose  of  fighting  against 
ecclesiastical  or  sacerdotal  encroachments  and  denials 


58  HEBREWS  [ch.viii. 

Oi  it,  but  it  ought  to  be  taken  as  the  candle  of  the 
Lord,  by  each  of  us,  and  in  tlie  light  of  it  we  ought  to 
search  very  rigidly,  and  very  often,  our  own  Christian 
character  and  experiences.  You,  dear  brethren,  with 
whom  I  am  most  closely  associated  here,  you  professing 
Christians  of  this  congregation — do  j^ou  know  anything 
about  that  inward  knowledge  of  God  which  comes  from 
friendship  wath  Plim,  and  speaks  irrefragable  certainties 
in  the  heart  which  receives  it?  'If  any  man  have  not 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  His.'  If  you  owe 
all  your  knowledge  of,  and  j'our  faith  in,  the  great 
verities  of  the  gospel,  and  the  loving  personality  of 
God,  to  the  mere  report  of  others,  if  you  cannot  verify 
these  by  your  own  experience,  if  you  cannot  say, '  Many 
things  I  know  not ;  you  can  easily  puzzle  me  with 
critical  and  philosophical  subtleties,  but  this  one  thing 
I  do  know,  that  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see' — if 
you  cannot  say  that,  I  pray  you,  bethink  j'ourselves 
whether  your  religion  is  not  mainly  a  form,  and  how 
far  it  has  any  life  in  it  at  all. 

But  whilst  thus  the  great  promise  of  my  text,  in  its 
very  blessedness  and  fulness,  does  carry  with  it  some 
solemn  suggestions  for  searching  self-examination,  it 
also  points  in  another  direction.  For  consider  what  it 
excludes  and  what  it  permits,  in  the  way  of  brotherly 
help  and  guidance.  It  certainly  excludes  on  the  one 
hand,  all  assumption  of  authority  over  the  consciences 
and  the  understandings  of  Christian  people,  on  the  part 
either  of  churches  or  individuals,  and  it  makes  short 
work  of  all  claims  that  there  continues  a  class  of  persons 
officially  distinguished  from  their  brethren,  and  having 
closer  access  to  God  than  they.  The  true  understand- 
ing of  these  words  of  my  text,  the  recognition  of  the 
universality  of  the  knowledge  of  God  in  all  Christian 


T.  11]   ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       59 

people,  has  great  revolutionary  work  yet  to  do  amongst 
the  churches  of  Christendom.  For  I  do  not  know  that 
there  are  any  of  them  that  have  sufficiently  recognised 
this  principle.  Not  only  in  a  church  where  there  is 
a  priesthood  and  an  infMllible  head  of  the  Church  on 
earth,  nor  only  in  churches  that  are  bound  by  human 
creeds  imposed  on  them  by  men,  but  also  in  churches 
like  ours,  where  there  is  no  formal  recognition  of  either 
of  these  two  errors,  the  practical  contradiction  of  this 
article  of  the  New  Covenant  is  apt  to  creep  in.  It  is 
a  great  deal  more  the  fault  of  the  people  than  of  the 
priest,  a  great  deal  more  the  fault  of  the  congregation 
than  of  the  pastor,  when  they  are  lazily  contented  to 
take  all  their  religion  at  second-hand  from  him,  and  to 
shuffle  all  the  responsibility  off  their  own  shoulders  on 
to  his.  If  my  text  obliges  me,  and  all  men  who  stand 
in  my  position,  to  say  with  the  Apostle,  '  Not  for  that 
we  have  dominion  over  your  faith,  but  are  helpers  of 
your  joy,'  it  obliges  you,  dear  brethren,  to  take  nothing 
from  me,  or  any  man,  on  our  bare  words,  nor  to  exalt 
any  of  us  into  a  position  which  would  contradict  the 
great  principle  of  my  text,  but  yourselves,  at  first  hand, 
to  go  to  God,  and  get  straight  from  Him  the  teaching 
which  He  only  can  give.  Dominion  and  subjection, 
authority  and  submission  to  men,  in  any  part  of  the 
church  are  shut  out  by  such  words  as  these. 

But  brotherly  help  is  not  shut  out.  If  a  party  of 
men  are  climbing  a  hill,  and  one  is  in  advance  of  his 
fellows,  when  be  reaches  the  summit  he  may  look  down 
and  call  to  those  below,  and  tell  them  how  fair  and  wide 
the  view  is,  and  beckon  them  to  come  and  give  them 
a  helping  hand  up.  So,  because  Christian  men  vary  in 
the  extent  to  which  they  possess  and  utilise  the  one  gift 
of  knowledge  of  God,  and  some  of  them  are  in  advance 


60  HEBKEWS  [ch.  viii. 

of  the  others,  it  is  all  in  accordance  with  the  principle  of 
my  text  that  they  that  are  in  advance  should  help  their 
brethren,  and  give  them  a  brotherly  hand.  Not  as  if 
my  brother's  word  can  give  me  the  inward  knowledge 
of  God,  but  it  may  help  me  to  get  that  knowledge  for 
myself.  We — I  speak  now  as  a  member  of  the  preach- 
ing class — we  can  but  do  what  the  friend  of  the  bride- 
groom does ;  he  brings  the  bride  to  her  lover,  and  then 
he  shuts  the  door  and  leaves  the  two  to  themselves. 
That  is  all  that  any  of  us  can  do.  You  must  yourself 
draw  the  water  from  the  well  of  sah^'ation.  We  can 
only  tell  you,  'there  is  the  well,  and  the  water  is 
sweet.' 

III.  Lastly,  the  means  by  which  this  promise  is 
fulfilled. 

I  have  already  pointed  out,  in  previous  sermons,  that 
the  conception  of  the  gospel  as  a  new  covenant  was 
endorsed  by  Jesus  Christ  Himself  in  words  which  tell 
us  how  all  these  blessings  that  are  set  forth  in  this 
context  are  secured  and  brought  to  men,  w^hen  in  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  He  spoke  of  '  the  New 
Covenant  in  His  blood.'  So  I  set  first  and  foremost, 
above  all  other  means,  this  one  great  truth,  that  all  this 
inward  knowledge  of  God,  which  is  the  prerogative  of 
every  Christian  man,  is  made  possible  and  actual  for 
any  of  us,  only  by  and  through  the  mission,  and 
especially  the  death,  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  For 
therein  does  He  set  forth  God  to  be  known  as  nothing 
else  but  that  supreme  suffering  and  supreme  self- 
surrender  upon  the  Cross,  ever  can  do  or  has  done. 
We  know  God  as  He  would  have  us  know  Him,  only 
when  we  see  Jesus  suffering  and  dying  for  us ;  and  then 
adoringly,  as  one  in  the  presence  of  a  mystery  into 
which  he  can  but  look  a  little  way,  say  that  even  there 


v.U]   ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT      CI 

and  then  *  he  that  hath  seen  that  Christ  hath  seen  the 
Father.' 

Jesus  Christ's  blood,  the  seal  of  the  Covenant,  is  the 
great  means  by  which  this  promise  is  fulfilled,  inasmuch 
as  in  that  death  He  sweeps  away  all  the  hindrances 
which  bar  us  out  from  the  knowledge  of  God.  The 
great  dark  wall  of  my  sin  rises  between  me  and  my 
Father.  Christ's  blood,  like  some  magic  drops  upon  a 
fortification,  causes  all  the  black  barrier  to  melt  away 
like  a  cloud ;  and  the  access  to  the  throne  of  God  is 
patent,  even  for  sinful  creatures  like  us.  The  veil  is 
rent,  and  by  that  blood  we  have  access  into  the  holiest 
of  all. 

Christ  is  the  source  of  this  knowledge  of  God,  inas- 
much, further,  as  by  His  mission  and  death  there  is 
given  to  the  whole  world,  if  it  will  receive  it,  and  to  all 
who  exercise  faith  in  His  name,  the  gift  of  that  Divine 
Spirit  who  teaches  to  our  inmost  spirit  the  true  know- 
ledge of  His  Son. 

And  so,  dear  brethren,  since  it  is  in  the  incarnate  and 
dying  Christ  that  all  knowledge  of  God  is  brought  to 
men,  that  all  possibility  of  friendship  and  communion 
between  men  and  God  is  rooted,  and  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  who  leads  us  into  the  deep  things  of  God  is 
granted  to  each  of  us,  there  follows  the  plain  conclusion 
that  the  one  way  by  which  every  man  and  woman  on 
earth  may  find  him  and  herself  included  within  that 
'  all,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest,'  is  simply  trust  in 
Christ  Jesus,  in  whom,  in  whose  life,  in  whose  death, 
God  is  made  known,  our  alienation  is  swept  away,  and 
the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Divine  Teacher,  is  granted  to  us 
all. 

Only,  remember  that  my  text  stands  in  close  con- 
nection with  the  preceding  articles  of  this  covenant,  and 


62  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

that  to  delight  in  the  law  of  the  Lord  is  the  sure  way 
to  know  more  of  the  Lord.  One  act  of  obedience  from, 
the  heart  will  teach  us  more  of  God  than  all  the  sages 
can.  It  is  more  illuminating  simply  to  do  as  He  willed 
than  to  road  and  think  and  speculate  and  study.  'If 
any  man  wills  to  do  Plis  will,  he  shall  know  of  the 
teaching.'  And  mutual  possession  of  God  by  us,  and 
of  us  by  God,  loads  to  fuller  knowledge.  To  possess 
God  is  to  love  Ilim ;  and  '  he  that  loveth  knoweth  God, 
yea !  rather  is  known  of  God.* 

So,  dear  brethren,  do  not  be  content  with  traditional 
religion,  with  a  hearsay  Christianity.  'Acquaint  now 
thyself  with  Him,'  and  be  at  peace.  Oh!  there  is 
nothing  sweeter  to  a  true  preacher  of  Christ  and  His 
salvation  than  that  those  to  whom  he  preaches  should 
be  able  to  do  M'ithout  him.  It  is  my  business  to  point 
you  away  from  myself,  however  much  I  prize  your  love 
and  confidence,  as  I  ought  to  do ;  and  to  beseech  you, 
for  your  own  soul's  sake,  that  you  w^ould  by  faith  in 
Christ  attain  that  knowledge  of  the  only  true  God  which 
He  is  sent  to  give.  Then  you  will  be  able  to  say,  '  Now, 
we  believe  not  because  of  thy  saying,  for  we  have 
heard  Him  ourselves,  and  know  that  this  is,  indeed,  the 
Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.' 


IV.  FORGIVENESS  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  BLESSING 

*For  I  will  be  merciful  to  their  unrighteousness,  and  their  sins  and  their 
iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more.'— Heb.  viii.  12. 

We  have  been  considering,  in  successive  sermons,  the 
great  promises  preceding  my  text,  which  are  the 
articles  of  the  New  Covenant.     We  reach  the  last  of 


V.  12]   ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT      63 

these  in  this  discourse.  It  is  last  in  order  of  enumera- 
tion because  it  is  first  in  order  of  fulfdment.  The 
foundation  is  dug  down  to  and  discovered  last,  because 
the  stones  of  it  were  laid  first.  The  introductory  '  for' 
in  my  text  shows  that  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  preced- 
ing great  promises  depends  uj)on  and  follows  the  ful- 
filment of  this,  the  greatest  of  them.  Forgiveness  is 
the  keystone  of  the  arch.  Strike  it  out,  and  the  whole 
tumbles  into  ruin.  Forgiveness  is  the  first  gift  to  be 
received  from  the  great  cornucopioe  of  blessings  which 
the  gospel  brings  for  men.  The  writer  is  tracing  the 
stream  upwards,  and  therefore  he  comes  last  to  that 
which  first  gushes  out  from  the  divine  heart.  All 
these  previous  promises  of  delight  in  the  law  of  the 
Lord,  mutual  possession  between  God  and  His  people, 
knowledge  of  God  which  is  based  upon  love,  are  con- 
sequences of  this  final  article,  '  I  will  be  merciful  to 
their  unrighteousness,  and  their  iniquities  will  I 
remember  no  more.' 

L  So,  then,  we  remark,  first,  that  forgiveness  deals 
with  man's  deepest  need. 

It  is  fundamental,  because  it  grapples  with  the  true 
evil  of  humanity,  which  is  not  sorrow,  but  is  sin.  All 
men  have  '  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,'  and  that 
fact,  the  fact  of  universal  sinfulness,  is  the  gravest  fact 
of  man's  condition ;  for  it  affects  his  whole  nature,  and 
it  disturbs  and  perverts  all  his  relations  to  God.  And  so, 
if  men  would  rightly  diagnose  the  disease  of  humanity, 
they  must  recognise  something  far  deeper  than  skin- 
deep  symptoms,  and  discover  that  it  is  sin  which  is  the 
source  of  all  human  misery  and  sorrow.  To  deal  with 
humanity  and  to  forget  or  ignore  the  true  source  of  all 
the  misery  in  the  world— namely,  the  fact  that  we 
'  have  all  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God ' — 


64  HEBREWS  [en.  viii. 

is  absurd.  '  Miserable  comforters  are  ye  all,'  if  potter- 
ing over  the  patient,  you  apply  ointment  to  pimples 
when  he  is  dying  of  cancer.  I  know,  of  course,  that  a 
great  deal  may  be  done,  and  that  a  great  deal  is  to-day 
being  done,  to  diminish  the  sum  of  human  wretched- 
ness ;  and  I  am  not  the  man  to  say  one  word  that  shall 
seem  to  under-estimate  or  pour  cold  water  upon  any  of 
these  various  schemes  of  improvement — philanthropic, 
social,  economic,  or  political ;  but  I  do  humbly  venture 
to  say  that  any  of  them,  and  all  of  them  put  together, 
if  they  do  not  grapple  with  this  fact  of  man's  sin,  are 
dealing  with  the  surface  and  leaving  the  centre  un- 
touched. Sin  does  not  come  only  from  ignorance,  and 
therefore  it  cannot  be  swept  away  by  knowledge.  It 
does  not  come  only  from  environment,  and  therefore  it 
cannot  be  taken  out  of  human  history  by  improvement 
of  circumstances.  It  does  not  come  from  poverty,  and 
therefore  economical  changes  will  not  annihilate  it. 
The  root  of  it  lies  far  deeper  than  any  of  these  things. 
The  power  which  is  to  make  humanity  blessed  must 
dig  down  to  the  root  and  grasp  that,  and  tear  it  up,  and 
eject  it  from  the  heart  of  man  before  society  can  be 
thoroughly  healed. 

Now,  what  does  Christianity  do  with  this  central 
part  of  human  experience  ?  My  text  tells  us  partly, 
and  only  partly,  'I  will  be  merciful  to  their  unright- 
eousness, and  their  sins  and  iniquities  will  I  remember 
no  more.'  Of  course,  the  divine  oblivion  is  a  strong 
metaphor  for  the  treatment  of  man's  sins  as  non-exist- 
ent. It  is  the  same  figure,  in  a  somewhat  different 
application,  as  is  found  in  the  great  promise,  'I  will 
cast  their  sins  behind  My  back  into  the  depths  of  the 
sea.'  It  is  the  same  metaphor  as  is  suggested  in  a  some- 
what different  application,  by  the  other  saying, '  Blessed 


..  12]  ARTICLES  OF  NEVV^  COVENANT       65 

is  the  man  wlioso  sin  is  covered.'  And  the  fact  that 
underlies  the  metaphors  of  forgetfuluess  or  burying  in 
the  ocean  deptlis,  or  covering  over  so  as  to  be  invisible, 
is  just  this,  that  God's  love  flows  out  to  the  sinful  man, 
unhindered  by  the  fact  of  his  transgression. 

If  Christian  people,  and  doubters  about  Christian 
truth,  would  understand  the  depth  and  loftiness  of  the 
Christian  idea  of  forgiveness,  there  would  be  less  diffi- 
culty felt  about  it.  For  pardon  is  not  the  same  thing 
as  the  removal  of  the  consequences  of  wrong-doing.  It 
is  so  in  regard  of  the  mere  outward  judicial  procedure 
of  nations,  but  it  is  not  so  in  the  family.  A  father  often 
pardons,  and  says  that  he  does  so  before  he  punishes, 
and  it  is  the  same  with  God.  The  true  notion  and 
essence  of  forgiveness,  as  the  Bible  conceives  it,  is  not 
the  putting  aside  of  consequences,  but  the  flow  of  the 
Father's  heart  to  the  erring  child. 

Sin  is  a  great  black  dam,  built  up  across  the  stream, 
but  the  flood  of  love  from  God's  heart  rises  over  it,  and 
pours  across  it,  and  buries  it  beneath  the  victorious, 
full  w\aters  of  the  'river  of  God.'  Here  is  a  world 
wrapped  in  mist,  and  high  above  the  mist  the  un- 
broken sunshine  of  the  divine  love  pours  down  upon 
the  upper  layer,  and  thins  and  thins  and  thins  it  until 
it  disappears,  and  the  full  sunshine  floods  the  rejoicing 
world,  and  the  ragged  fragments  of  the  mist  melt  into 
the  blue.  '  I  have  blotted  out  as  a  cloud  thy  sins  and 
as  a  thick  cloud  thy  transgressions.'  The  outward  con- 
sequences of  forgiven  sin  may  have  to  be  reaped.  If  a 
man  has  lived  a  sensuous  life,  no  repentance,  no  for- 
giveness, will  prevent  the  drunkard's  hand  from  trem- 
bling, or  cure  the  corrugations  of  his  liver.  If  a  man 
has  sinned,  no  divine  forgiveness  will  ever  take  the 
memory  of  his  transgressions,  nor  their  effects,  out  of 

£ 


GQ  HEBREWS  [ch.viii. 

his  character.  But  the  divine  forgiveness  may  so 
modify  the  effects  as  that,  instead  of  past  sin  being  a 
source  of  torment  or  a  tyrant  which  compels  to  future 
similar  transgressions,  pardoned  sin  will  become  a 
source  of  lowly  self-distrust,  and  may  even  tend  to 
increase  in  goodness  and  righteousness.  When  bees 
cannot  remove  some  corruption  out  of  the  hive  they 
cover  it  over  with  wax,  and  then  it  is  harmless,  and 
they  can  build  upon  it  honey-bearing  cells.  Thus  it 
is  possible  that,  by  pardon,  the  consequences  which 
must  be  reaped  may  be  turned  into  occasions  for  good. 

But  the  act  of  the  divine  forgiveness  does  annihilate 
the  deepest  and  the  most  serious  consequences  of  my 
sin ;  for  hell  is  separation  from  God,  the  sense  of  discord 
and  alienation  between  Him  and  me  ;  and  all  these  are 
swept  away. 

So  here  is  the  foundation  blessing,  which  meets  man's 
deepest  need.  And  be  sure  of  this,  that  any  system 
which  cannot  grapple  with  that  need  will  never  avail 
for  the  necessities  of  a  sinful  Avorld.  Unless  our  new 
evangelists  can  come  to  us  with  as  clear  an  utterance 
as  this  of  my  text,  they  wall  work  their  enchantments 
in  vain ;  and  the  world  will  be  the  old,  sad,  miserable 
world,  after  all  that  they  can  do. 

II.  This  forgiveness  is  attained  through  Christ,  and 
through  Him  only. 

I  have  tried  to  show  in  former  sermons,  that  the 
whole  of  these  promises  of  what  our  writer  calls  '  the 
New  Covenant,'  are,  as  our  Lord  Himself  said,  sealed '  in 
His  blood.'  And  that  is  especially  true  in  reference  to 
this  promise  of  forgiveness.  It  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
in  Christ  Jesus  alone,  that  that  pardon  which  my  text 
speaks  of  is  secured  to  men. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  Scriptural  statements  to 


V.  12]  AUTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       67 

this  effect,  but  I  desire  to  emphasise  this  thought,  that 
the  Christian  teaching  of  forgiveness  is  based  upon  the 
conception  of  Christ's  work  and  especially  of  Christ's 
death,  as  being  the  atonement  for  the  world's  sin.  It 
is  because,  and  only  because,  *  lie  bore  our  sins  in  His 
own  body  on  the  tree,'  that  the  full-toned  gospel 
proclamation  can  be  rung  out  to  men,  that  God 
'remembers  their  transgressions  no  more.'  Unless 
that  foundation  be  firmly  laid  in  the  New  Testament 
conception  of  the  meaning  and  power  of  the  death  of 
Christ,  I  know  not  where  there  is  a  basis  for  the 
proclamation  to  man  of  divine  forgiveness. 

Of  course,  my  text  itself  does  show  that  the  very 
common  misrepresentation  of  the  New  Testament 
evangelical  teaching  about  this  matter  is  a  misrepresen- 
tation. It  is  often  objected  to  that  teaching  that  it 
alleges  that  Christ's  sacrifice  effected  a  change  in  the 
divine  heart  and  disposition,  and  made  God  love  men 
whom  He  did  not  love  before.  The  mighty  'I  will'  of 
my  text  makes  no  specific  reference  to  Christ's  death, 
and  rather  implies  w4iat  is  the  true  relation  between 
the  love  of  God  and  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  that 
God's  love  was  the  originating  cause,  of  which  Christ's 
death  was  the  redeeming  effect.  'He  so  loved  the 
world  that  He  gave  His  .  .  .  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  on  Him  should  .  .  .  have  eternal  life.'  And 
no  wise  evangelical  teacher  ever  has  asserted,  or  does 
assert,  anything  else  than  that  the  mission  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  consequence,  and  not  the  cause,  of  the 
Father's  love  to  sinful  men. 

But  that  being  kept  distinctly  in  view,  I  suppose  I  need 
not  remind  you  how,  like  the  strand  that  runs  through 
the  cables  of  the  Royal  Navy,  the  red  thread  of  Christ's 
Bacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  runs  through 


68  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

the  whole  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  fashionable 
nowadays  to  say  that  no  theory  of  the  atonement  is 
needed  in  order  that  men  should  receive  the  benefit  of 
Christ's  work.  That  is  partially  true,  in  so  far  as  that 
no  human  conceptions  will  exhaust  the  fulness  of  that 
great  work,  nor  can  penetrate  to  all  its  depths.  But  it 
is  not  true,  as  I  humbly  take  it,  inasmuch  as  if  a  man 
is  to  get  the  forgiveness  that  comes  through  Jesus 
Christ,  he  must  have  this  theory,  that  *  Christ  died  for 
our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures.'  And  that  is  the 
teaching  of  the  whole  New  Testament. 

I  need  not  remind  you  how  all  Paul's  writing  is 
saturated  with  it,  but  I  may  remind  you  that  to  people 
who  were  very  lynx-eyed  critics  of  him  and  of  his 
teaching,  he  said,  about  that  very  statement  that  Christ 
died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures — '  whether 
it  were  they  or  I,  so  we  preach.'  And  his  appeal  to  the 
consensus  and  vinanimity  of  the  apostles  is  amply 
vindicated  by  the  documents  that  still  remain.  We  are 
told  that  there  are  types  of  teaching  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. There  are,  and  very  beautifully  they  vary,  and 
very  harmoniously  they  blend.  But  there  are  no 
diversities  in  regard  to  this  matter.  If  Paul  says,  '  In 
whom  we  have  redemption  through  His  blood,  even  the 
forgiveness  of  our  sins,'  Peter  says, '  He  bare  our  sins 
in  His  own  body  on  the  tree';  and  John  says',  'He  is 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  our  sins  only 
but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.'  And  if,  as  I 
believe,  the  Book  of  the  Revelation  is  his,  the  vision 
that  John  saw  in  the  heavens  was  the  vision  of  'a 
Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain ' ;  and  the  song  which  he 
heard  rising  from  immortal  lips  was  of  praise  unto  Him 
that '  hath  loosed  us  from  our  sins  by  His  own  blood.' 

'So  they  preached.'    God  grant  that  it  may  be  true 


V  12]  ARTICLES  OF  NEW  COVENANT       G9 

of  all  of  us ;  *  so  we  believe.'  For,  brethren,  tins  clear, 
certain  statement  of  the  gospel  of  forgiveness  through 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  characteristic  glory  of  the  whole 
revelation.  Without  it,  apart  from  Him  and  His  Cross, 
I  do  not  know  how  the  hope  of  forgiveness  can  he  more 
than  dim  and  doubtful.  I  know  not  how  any  man  that 
has  once  felt  the  grip  of  evil  on  his  inclinations,  and  the 
responsibility  and  guilt  which  he  has  drawn  down  upon 
his  head  by  his  transgressions,  can  find  a  firm  footing 
for  his  assurance  of  pardon,  apart  from  the  Cross  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Without  that,  the  divine  forgiveness  is 
but  a  peradventure,  sometimes  a  hope,  sometimes  an 
illusion.  The  men  that  reject  Christianity  for  the  most 
part  proclaim  the  gospel  of  despair.  '  Whatsoever  a  man 
soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap,'  in  such  a  sense  as  to 
annihilate  the  possibility  of  pardon.  But  in  Christ  we 
understand  that  we  may  reap  these  fruits,  and  yet  be 
pardoned.  '  Thou  wast  a  God  that  f  orgavest  them,  and 
tookest  vengeance  of  their  inventions.'  Forgiveness 
apart  from  Christ  stands,  as  it  seems  to  me,  in  no  intel- 
ligible relation  to  the  divine  character.  And,  apart 
from  Christ,  forgiveness  is  apt  to  dwindle  down,  and  to 
be  degraded  into  mere  lazy  tolerance  of  evil,  and  to 
make  God  a  good-natured,  indifferent  Sovereign,  who 
does  not  so  very  much  mind  whether  His  subjects  do 
His  will  or  not. 

But  when  we  can  say, '  He  died  for  my  sins,'  then  we 
can  see  that  the  divine  righteousness  and  the  divine 
love  are  but  two  names  for  one  thing,  and  forgiveness 
lifts  us  into  a  region  of  higher  purity.  Christianity 
alone  teaches  the  loftiest  ideal  of  human  righteousness, 
the  loftiest  conception  of  the  divine  character,  the 
absolute  inflexibility  of  the  divine  law  and  withal  full, 
free  pardon.     It  stands  alone  in    the  sombre  aspect 


70  HEBREWS  [ch.  viii. 

under  which  it  contemplates  humanity,  and  the  bound 
less  hope  of  its  possibilities  which  it  entertains.  It 
stands  alone  in  that  forgiveness  is  the  means  to  higher 
holiness;  and  in  that,  pardoning,  it  heals,  and  whispers 
'Go  thy  way;  sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  befall 
thee.'  Therefore  is  it  a  gospel ;  therefore  is  it  the  New 
Covenant  in  His  blood. 

III.  Lastly,  this  forgiveness  is  fundamental  to  all 
other  Christian  blessings. 

As  I  have  said,  the  very  structure  of  our  text  shows 
that  that  was  the  writer's  idea.  There  can  be  no 
'  delight  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,'  which  is  the  first  of 
the  articles  of  the  New  Covenant,  until  there  is  the 
taking  away  of  the  sin  which  deepens  aversion  to  God's 
law,  and  until  the  Lawgiver  has  become  beloved  for 
the  sake  of  His  received  forgiveness.  Then  we  shall 
delight  in  the  law  when  "we  love  the  lips  that  proclaim 
it,  because  before  they  issued  commandments  they 
decreed  absolution,  and  declared '  Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee.' 

Forgiveness  precedes  the  second  of  these  covenant 
blessings — viz.,  mutual  possession  between  God  and  His 
people.  For  so  long  as  there  remains  unforgiven  sin 
in  a  man's  heart,  it  comes  like  a  film  of  atmospheric  air 
or  grains  of  dust  between  two  polished  metal  plates, 
forbidding  their  adhesion;  and  only  when  it  is  taken 
away  will  they  come  together  and  abide  united.  It  lies 
at  the  foundation  of,  and  must  precede,  all  that  true 
knowledge  of  God,  which  is  the  third  of  the  articles  of 
the  covenant,  and  is  a  consequence  of  love  and  com- 
munion. *  For  how  can  two  walk  together  except  they 
be  agreed  ?'  Until  my  sin  is  taken  from  me  the  eyes  of 
my  soul  are  dim ;  and  I  know  not  God  in  deep  reciprocal 
possession  and  continual  love.    And  so  with  all  other  of 


V.12]   ARTICLES  OT- NEW  COVENANT       71 

the  blessings  and  the  hopes  which  Christian  men  arc 
entitled  to  cherish  by  reason  of  this  covenant  of  God's 
changeless  love. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  them,  but  I  would  leave  with 
you  these  thoughts.  A  Christianity  which  does  not 
begin  wath  the  proclamation  of  forgiveness  is  impotent. 
Again,  a  Christianity  which  does  not  base  forgiveness 
on  Christ's  sacrifice  is  also  impotent.  The  history  of 
the  Church  shows  that  preachers  and  teachers  and 
churches  that  do  not  know  what  to  say  when  a  poor 
soul  comes  to  them  and  asks,  *  What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved?'  are  of  no  use,  or  next  to  none  The  man  in 
whom  there  are  devils  says  to  such  maimed  representa- 
tions of  the  gospel,  'Jesus  I  know,  and  Paul  I  know, 
but  who  are  ye  ? '  and  leaps  upon  them,  and  overcomes 
them.  The  whole  experience  of  the  past  demonstrates 
that.  And  so  one  laments  the  vagueness  and  the 
faltering  in  proclaiming  this  truth  so  common  in  this 
day.  Brethren,  I,  for  my  part,  believe  that  the  only 
tA'pe  of  Christianity  which  will  win  men's  hearts  is  that 
modelled  on  the  pattern  of  the  New  Testament  teach- 
ing, which  begins  with  the  fact  of  sin,  and,  having  dealt 
with  that,  then  goes  on  to  bestow  all  other  blessings. 

But  do  not  forget  another  thing,  that  a  Christianity 
which  does  not  build  holiness,  delight  in  God's  law, 
conscious  possession  of  Him  and  possession  by  Him,  and 
deep,  blessed  knowledge  of  Him,  on  forgiveness,  is 
wofully  imperfect.  And  that  is  the  Christianity  of  a 
great  many  of  us.  Here  is  the  first  round  of  the 
ladder:  *I  will  remember  their  iniquities  no  more.' 
Put  your  foot  upon  that  and  then  begin  to  ascend ; 
and  do  not  stop  till  you  have  reached  the  top,  whence 
His  face  looks  down,  and  whence  you  can  step  on  to  the 
stable  standing-ground  beside  His  very  throne.    Begin 


72  HEBREWS  [ch.  ix. 

with  forgiveness,  and  all  these  blessings  shall  be  added 
unto  you,  if  you  keep  the  covenant  of  your  God. 


THE  PRIEST  IN  THE  HOLY  PLACE 

'  But  Christ  being  come  an  high  priest  of  good  things  to  come,  by  a  greater 
and  more  perfect  (abernaclp,  jiol  made  with  hand^,  that  is  to  say,  not  of  this  build- 
ing ;  12.  Neither  by  the  blood  of  goats  and  calves,  but  by  His  own  blood  Ho 
entered  in  once  into  the  holy  place,  liaving  obtained  eternal  redemption  for  lis. 
13.  For  if  the  blood  of  bulla  and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an  heifer  sprinkling  the 
nnclean,  sanctilielh  to  the  purifying  of  tin;  flesh:  M.  How  much  more  shall  the 
blood  of  Christ,  who  through  the  eternal  .Spirit  offered  Himself  wit  ho\it  spot  to 
God,  purge  your  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the  living  God?  24.  For 
Christ  is  not  entered  into  the  holy  places  made  with  hands, which  arc  the  figures 
of  the  true  ;  but  into  heaven  itself,  now  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us: 
25.  Nor  yet  that  He  should  ofFor  Himself  often,  as  the  high  priest  entcrcth  into  the 
holy  place  every  year  with  blood  of  others :  26.  (For  then  must  He  often  have 
suffered  since  the  foundation  of  the  world  :)  but  now  once  in  the  end  of  the  world 
hath  He  appeared  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself.  27.  And  as  it  is 
appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judgment:  28.  So  Christ  was 
once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many ;  and  unto  them  that  look  for  Him  shall  He 
appear  the  second  time,  without  sin,  unto  salvation.'— Heb.  ix.  11-14,21-28. 

Space  forbids  attempting  full  treatment  of  these 
pregnant  verses.  We  can  only  sum  up  generally  their 
teaching  on  the  priesthood  of  Jesus. 

I.  Christ,  as  the  high  priest  of  the  world,  offers  Him- 
self. Obviously  verse  14  refers  to  Christ's  sacrificial 
death,  and  in  verse  26  His  '  sacrifice  of  Himself '  is 
equivalent  to  His  'having  suffered.'  The  contention 
that  the  priestly  office  of  Jesus  begins  with  His 
entrance  into  the  presence  of  God  is  set  aside  by  the 
plain  teaching  of  this  passage,  which  regards  His  death 
as  the  beginning  of  His  priestly  work.  What,  then,  are 
the  characteristics  of  that  offering,  according  to  this 
writer  ?  The  point  dwelt  on  most  emphatically  is  that 
He  is  both  priest  and  sacrifice.  That  great  thought 
opens  a  wide  field  of  meditation,  for  adoring  thankful- 
ness and  love.  It  implies  the  voluntariness  of  His 
death.  No  necessity  bound  Him  to  the  Cross.  Not  the 
nails,  but  His  love,  fastened  Him  there.    Himself  He 


vs.  11-14]  TRIEST  IN  THE  HOLY  PLACE     73 

would  not  save,  because  others  He  would  save.  The 
offering  was  '  through  the  Eternal  Spirit,'  the  divine 
personality  in  Himself,  which  as  it  were,  took  the  knife 
and  slew  the  human  life.  That  sacrifice  was  '  without 
blemish,'  fulfilling  in  perfect  moral  purity  the  prescrip- 
tions of  the  ceremonial  law,  which  but  clothe  in  out- 
ward form  the  universal  consciousness  that  nothing 
stained  or  faulty  is  worthy  to  be  given  to  God.  What 
are  the  blessings  brought  to  us  by  that  wondrous  self- 
sacrifice  ?  They  are  stated  most  generally  in  verse  26 
as  the  putting  away  of  sin,  and  again  in  verse  28  as 
being  the  bearing  of  the  sins  of  many,  and  again  in 
verse  14  as  cleansing  conscience  from  dead  works  to 
serve  the  living  God.  Now  the  first  of  these  expres- 
sions includes  the  other  two,  and  expresses  the  blessed 
truth  that,  by  His  death,  Jesus  has  made  an  end  of  sin, 
in  all  its  shapes  and  powers,  whether  it  is  regarded  as 
guilt  or  burden,  or  taint  and  tendency  paralysing  and 
disabling.  Sin  is  guilt,  and  Christ's  death  deals  with 
our  past,  taking  away  the  burden  of  condemnation. 
Thus  verse  28  presents  Him  as  bearing  the  sins  of  many, 
as  the  scapegoat  bore  the  sins  of  the  congregation  into 
a  land  not  inhabited,  as  '  the  Lord  made  to  meet '  on 
the  head  of  the  Servant '  the  iniquities  of  us  all.'  The 
best  commentary  .on  the  words  here  is, '  He  bare  our 
sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree.'  But  sin  has  an  effect 
in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  and  the  death  of  Christ  deals 
with  that.  So  verse  14  parallels  it  not  only  with  the 
sacrifice  which  made  access  to  God  possible,  bat  with  the 
ceremonial  of  the  red  heifer,'  by  which  i^ollution  from 
touching  a  corpse  was  removed.  A  conscience  which 
has  been  in  contact  with  •  dead  works '  (and  all  works 
which  are  not  done  from  '  the  life '  are  so)  is  unfit  to 
serve  God,  as  well  as  lacking  in  wish  to  serve ;  and  the 


74  HEBREWS  [ch.  ix. 

only  way  to  set  it  free  from  the  nightmare  which 
fetters  it  is  to  touch  it  with  *  the  blood,'  and  then  it  will 
spring  up  to  a  waking  life  of  glad  service.  ' The  blood' 
is  shed  to  take  away  guilt;  'the  blood'  is  the  life,  and, 
being  shed  in  the  death,  it  can  be  transfused  into  our 
veins,  and  so  will  cleanse  us  from  all  sin.  Thus,  in 
regard  both  to  past  and  future,  sin  is  put  away  by  the 
sacrifice  of  Himself.  The  completeness  of  His  priestly 
work  is  furtlier  attested  by  the  fact,  triumphantly 
dwelt  on  in  the  lesson,  that  it  is  done  once  for  all,  and 
needs  no  repetition,  and  is  incapable  of  repetition, 
while  the  world  lasts. 

II.  Christ,  as  the  high  priest  of  the  world,  passes  into 
heaven  for  us.  The  priest's  office  of  old  culminated  in 
his  entrance  into  the  Holy  of  Holies,  to  present  the 
blood  of  sacrifice.  Christ's  priesthood  is  completed  by 
His  ascension  and  heavenly  intercession.  We  necessarily 
attach  local  ideas  to  this,  but  the  reality  is  deeper  than 
all  notions  of  place.  The  passage  speaks  of  Jesus  as 
•entering  into  the  holy  place,'  and  again  as  entering 
•heaven  itself  for  us.'  It  also  speaks  of  His  having 
entered  '  through  the  greater  and  more  perfect  taber- 
nacle,' the  meaning  of  which  phrase  depends  on  the  force 
attached  to  '  through.'  If  it  is  taken  locally,  the  meaning 
is  as  in  chapter  iv.  14,  that  He  has  passed  through  the 
[lower]  heavens  to  '  heaven  itself ' ;  if  it  is  taken 
instrumentally  (as  in  following  clause),  the  meaning  is 
that  Jesus  used  the  '  greater  tabernacle '  in  the  dis- 
charge of  His  office  of  priest.  The  great  truth  under- 
lying both  the  ascension  and  the  representations  of  this 
context  is,  as  verse  24  puts  it,  that  He  appears  *  before 
the  face  of  God,'  and  there  carries  on  His  work,  prepar- 
ing a  place  for  us.  Further,  we  note  that  Jesus,  as 
priest  representing  humanity,  and  being  Himself  man. 


vs.  11-u]  PRIEST  IN  THE  HOLY  PLACE     75 

can  stand  before  the  face  of  God,  by  virtue  of  His 
sacrifice,  in  which  man  is  reconciled  to  God.  His  sinless 
manhood  needed  no  such  sacrifice,  but,  as  our  repre- 
sentative, He  could  not  appear  there  without  the  blood 
of  sacrifice.  That  blood,  as  shed  on  earth,  avails  to  *  put 
away  sin';  as  presented  in  heaven,  it  avails  'for  us,' 
being  ever  present  before  the  divine  eye,  and  influencing 
the  divine  dealings.  That  entrance  is  the  climax  of  the 
process  by  which  He  obtained  '  eternal  redemption  '  for 
us.  Initial  redemption  is  obtained  through  His  death, 
but  the  full,  perfect  unending  deliverance  from  all  sin 
and  evil  is  obtained,  indeed,  by  His  passing  into  the 
Holy  Place  above,  but  possessed  ir  fact  only  when  we 
follow  Him  thither.  We  need  Him  who  'became  dead' 
for  pardon  and  cleansing ;  we  need  Him  who  is  '  alive 
for  evermore'  for  present  participation  in  His  life  and 
present  sitting  with  Him  in  the  heavenly  places,  and  for 
the  ultimate  and  eternal  entrance  there,  whence  we 
shall  go  no  more  out. 

III.  Christ,  as  the  high  priest  of  the  world,  will  come 
forth  from  the  holy  i)lace.  The  ascension  cannot  end 
His  connection  with  the  world.  It  carries  in  itself  the 
prophecy  of  a  return.  '  If  I  go,  ...  I  will  come  again.' 
The  high  priest  came  forth  to  the  people  waiting  for 
him,  so  our  High  Priest  will  come.  Men  have  to  die, 
and  '  after  death,'  not  merely  as  following  in  time,  but 
as  necessarily  following  in  idea  and  fact,  a  judgment  in 
which  each  man's  work  shall  be  infallibly  estimated 
and  manifested.  Jesus  has  died  '  to  bear  the  sins  of 
many.'  Tliere  must  follow  for  Him,  too,  an  estimate 
and  manifestation  of  His  work.  What  for  others  is 
•judgment,'  for  Him  is  manifestation  of  His  sinlessness 
and  saving  power.  He  shall  be  seen,  no  longer  stoop- 
ing under  the  weight  of  a  world's  sins,  but '  apart  from 


76  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

sin.*  He  shall  be  seen  '  unto  salvation,'  for  the  vision 
will  bring  with  it  assimilation  to  His  sinless  likeness. 
He  shall  be  thus  seen  by  those  that  wait  for  Him,  looking 
through  the  shows  of  time  to  the  far-off  shining  of  His 
coming,  and  meanwhile  having  their  loins  girt  and 
their  lamps  burning. 


THE  ENTHRONED  CHRIST 

'This  man,  after  He  had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins  for  ever,  eat  down  on  the 
right  hand  of  God.'— Heb.  x.  12. 

To  that  tremendous  assertion  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment is  committed.  Peter,  Paul,  John,  the  writer  of 
this  book — all  teach  that  the  Jesus  who  died  on  Calvary 
now  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  This  is  no  case  of 
distance  casting  a  halo  round  the  person  of  a  simple 
teacher,  for  six  weeks  after  Calvary,  on  the  Day  of 
Pentecost,  Peter  declared  that  Jesus,  '  exalted  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,'  had  '  shed  forth  this,'  the  gift  of 
that  Divine  Spirit.  This  is  no  case  of  enthusiastic 
disciples  going  beyond  their  Master's  teaching,  for  all 
the  evangelists  who  record  our  Lord's  trial  before  the 
Sanhedrin  concur  in  saying  that  the  turning-point  of 
it,  which  led  to  His  condemnation,  was  the  declaration, 
'  Ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  at  the  right  hand 
of  power.'  The  rulers  interpreted  the  assertion  to 
mean  an  assertion  of  divinity,  and  therefore  con- 
demned Him  to  death.  Christ  was  silent,  and  the 
silence  witnessed  that  they  interpreted  His  meaning 
aright.  So,  then,  for  good  or  evil,  we  have  Jesus 
making  the  tremendous  assertion,  which  His  followers 
but  repeated.  Let  us  try  to  look  at  these  words,  and 
draw  from  them    some  of   the   rich  fulness  of  their 


V.  12]       THE  ENTHRONED  CHRIST  77 

meaning.  Communion,  calm  repose,  participation  in 
divine  power  and  dominion,  and  much  besides,  are 
implied  in  this  great  symbol.  And  I  desire  to  dwell 
upon  the  various  aspects  of  it  for  a  few  moments  now. 

I.  Here  we  have  the  attestation  of  the  completeness, 
the  sufficiency,  and  the  perpetuity  of  Christ's  sacrifice. 

Look  at  the  context.  Mark  the  strong  words  which 
immediately  precede  the  last  clause  of  my  text.  '  This 
Man,  after  He  had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins  for 
ever,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  God.'  The  writer 
has  just  been  arguing  that  all  Jewish  sacrifice,  which 
he  regarded  as  being  of  divine  appointment,  was 
inadequate,  and  derived  its  whole  importance  from 
being  a  prophetic  shadow  of  the  perfect  sacrifice  of 
Jesus  Christ.  And  he  points,  first,  in  proof  of  his 
thesis,  to  the  entire  disparity  of  the  two  things — the 
taking  away  of  sin,  and  the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats. 
And  then  he  adds  a  subsidiary  consideration,  saying  in 
effect, '  The  very  fact  that  day  after  day  the  sacrifices 
are  continued,  shows  that  they  had  no  power  to  do  the 
thing  for  which  they  were  offered — viz.,  to  quiet  con- 
sciences.' For,  if  the  consciences  were  quieted,  then 
the  sacrifice  would  cease  to  be  offered.  And  so  he 
draws  a  sharp  contrast  between  the  priests  who  stand 
daily  ministering  and  '  offering  oftentimes  the  same 
sacrifice,'  which  by  their  very  repetition  are  demon- 
strated to  be  inadequate  to  effect  their  purpose,  and 
Jesus.  Instead  of  these  priests  standing,  offering,  and 
doing  over  and  over  again  their  impotent  sacrifices, 
'  this  Man '  offered  His  once.  That  was  enough,  and 
for  ever.  And  the  token  that  the  one  sacrifice  was 
adequate,  really  could  take  away  sin,  would  never, 
through  all  the  rolling  ages  of  the  world's  history,  lose 
its  efficacy,  lies  here — He  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 


78  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

Brethren,  in  that  session,  whicli  the  Lord  Himself 
commanded  us  to  believe,  is  the  divine  answer  and 
endorsement  of  the  triumphant  cry  upon  the  Cross,  *  It 
is  finished,'  and  it  is  God's  last,  loudest,  and  ever- 
reverberating  proclamation  to  all  the  world,  in  all  its 
generations,  'This  is  My  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am 
well  pleased.' 

Do  you  think  of  Christ's  mission  and  Christ's  work  as 
this  writer  thought  of  it,  finding  the  vital  centre  in  its 
sacrificial  efficacy,  seeing  it  as  being  mainly  a  work 
caused  b}-,  in  relation  to,  and  victorious  over,  man's  sin 
and  my  sin,  and  as  attested  as  sufficient  for  all  sin,  for 
the  sins  of  the  world,  in  all  generations,  by  the  fact 
that,  having  offered  it  once,  the  High  Priest,  as  this 
same  writer  says  in  another  place,  sat  at  the  right 
hand  of  God  ?  These  two  things,  the  high  Scriptural 
notion  of  the  essential  characteristic  and  efficacy  of 
Christ's  work  as  being  sacrificial,  and  the  high  Scrip- 
tural notion  of  His  present  session  at  the  right  hand  of 
God ;  these  two  things  are  correlated  and  bound  in- 
separably together.  If  you  only  think  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  being  a  great  teacher,  a  blessed  example,  the  very 
flower  and  crown  of  immaculate  humanity,  if  you 
listen  to  His  words,  and  rejoice  over  the  beauty  of  His 
character,  but  do  not  see  that  the  thing  which  He,  and 
He  alone,  does,  is  to  deal  with  the  tremendous  reality 
of  human  transgression,  and  to  annihilate  it,  both  in 
regard  of  its  guilt  and  of  its  power,  then  the  notion  of 
His  session  at  the  right  hand  of  God  becomes  sur- 
plusage and  superstition.  But  if  we  see,  as  I  pray 
God  that  we  may  each  see  for  ourselves,  that  when 
He  came,  He  '  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister,'  and  that  even  that  does  not  exhaust 
the  significance  of  His  Person,  and  the  purpose  of  His 


V.  12]      THE  ENTHRONED  CHRIST  79 

mission,  but  that  He  came  'to  give  His  life  a  ransom 
tor  many,'  then,  oh !  then,  when  my  conscience  asks  in 
agony, '  Is  there  a  way  of  getting  rid  of  my  transgres- 
sions?' and  when  my  weak  will  asks,  in  tremulous 
indecision,  *Is  there  a  way  by  which  I  can  shake  off 
the  tyranny  of  this  usurping  evil  power  that  has  fixed 
its  claws  in  my  character  and  my  habits  ? '  then  I  turn 
and  look  to  the  Christ  enthroned  at  the  right  hand  of 
power,  and  I  say,  'This  Man  has  offered  one  sacrifice 
for  sins  for  ever';  and  there,  in  that  calm  session  at 
God's  right  hand,  is  the  attestation  that  His  sacrifice  is 
complete,  is  sufficient,  and  is  perpetual. 

II.  We  have  here  the  revelation  of  ovir  Lord's  calm 
repose. 

That  is  expressed,  of  course,  by  the  very  attitude  in 
which,  in  the  symbol,  He  is  represented.  Away  down 
in  the  Egyptian  desert  there  sit,  moulded  in  colossal 
calm,  two  giant  figures,  with  hands  laid  restfully  in 
their  laps,  and  wide-open  eyes  gazing  out  over  the 
world.  There  they  have  sat  for  millenniums,  the 
embodiment  of  majestic  repose.  So  Christ  '  sitteth  at 
the  right  hand  of  God'  rapt  in  the  fulness  of  eternal 
calm.  But  that  tranquillity  is  parallel  with  the 
Scriptural  representation  of  the  rest  of  God  after 
creation,  which  neither  indicates  previous  exhaustion 
nor  connotes  present  idleness,  but  expresses  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work  and  the  correspondence  of  the 
reality  with  the  ideal  which  was  in  the  Maker's  mind. 

In  like  manner,  as  I  have  been  trying  to  point  out 
to  you,  Christ's  rest  means  the  completeness  of  His 
finished  work,  and  carries  along  with  it,  as  that  divine 
rest  after  creation  does  in  its  region,  the  conception 
of  continuous  activity,  for  just  as  little  as  the  con- 
tinuous phenomena  of  nature  can   be  conceived    of. 


80  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

apart  from  the  immanent  activity  of  the  ever- working 
God,  and  just  as  the  last  word  of  all  physical  science 
is  that,  beneath  the  so-called  causes  and  so-called  forces 
there  must  lie  a  personal  will,  the  only  cause  known  to 
man,  and  preservation  is  a  continuous  creation,  and  the 
changes  in  nature  are  the  result  of  the  will  of  the  active 
God,  so  the  past  work  of  Christ,  of  which  He  said,  when 
He  died,  '  It  is  finished ! '  is  prolonged  into,  and  carried 
on  through,  the  ages  by  the  continuous  activity  of  the 
ever-working  Christ.  *  He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of 
God ' ;  and  to  that  session  may  be  applied  in  full  truth 
what  He  said  Himself,  in  the  vindication  of  His  work 
on  the  Sabbath  day — 'My  leather  worketh  hitherto,  and 
I  work.' 

So  the  dying  martyr  looked  up  in  the  council 
chamber,  and  beyond  the  vaulted  roof  saw  the  heavens 
opened,  and  with  a  significant  variation  in  the  sym- 
bolical attitude,  saw  '  the  Son  of  Man  standing  at  the 
right  hand  of  God.'  The  seated  Christ,  we  might  say, 
had  sprung  to  His  feet,  in  answer  to  the  djnng  martyr's 
faith  and  prayer,  and  granted  him  the  vision,  not  of 
calm  repose,  but  of  intensest  activity  for  his  help  and 
sustaining. 

The  appendix  to  Mark's  Gospel,  in  like  manner,  unites 
these  two  conceptions  of  undisturbed  tranquillity  and 
of  energetic  work.  For  he  says  that  the  Lord  'was 
received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  and  they  went  .  .  .  everywhere  preaching  the 
word.'  Then  did  the  Commander-in-chief  send  His 
soldiers  out  into  the  battlefield,  and  Himself  retire  to 
the  safe  shelter  of  the  hill?  By  no  means.  For  the 
two  halves  of  the  picture  which  look  so  unlike  one 
nnother  — the  Lord  seated  there,  and  the  servants 
wandering  about   and  toiling  here — are    brought  to- 


T.  12]       THE  ENTHRONED  CHRIST  81 

gether  into  the  one  solid  reality,  '  they  went  forth  and 
preached  everj- ^\ here,  the  Lord' — seated  up  yonder — 
'  working  with  them.'  So  constant  activity  is  the  very 
essence  and  inseparable  accompaniment  of  the  undis- 
turbed tranquillity  of  the  seated  Christ.  In  other  places 
in  Scripture  we  get  the  same  blending  together  of  the 
two  ideas,  as,  for  instance,  when  Paul  says  '  It  is 
Christ  that  died,  yea,  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who 
is  even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh 
intercession  for  us.'  And  in  like  manner,  in  Peter's 
utterance  upon  Pentecost,  already  referred  to,  you 
find  the  same  idea.  '  Being  at  the  right  hand  of  God 
exalted,  He  hath  showed  forth  this  which  ye  now 
see  and  hear.'  So,  working  with  us,  working  in  us, 
working  for  us,  working  through  us,  the  ever  active 
Christ  is  with  His  people,  and  seated  at  the  right  hand 
of  God,  shares  in  all  their  labours, in  all  their  difficulties, 
in  all  their  warfare. 

III.  Lastly,  we  have  here  the  revelation  of  Christ's 
participation  in  divine  power  and  dominion. 

There  is  a  very  remarkable  and  instructive  variety 
in  the  forms  of  expression  conveying  this  idea  in 
various  parts  of  the  New  Testament.  We  read  from 
His  own  lips,  '  seated  at  the  right  hand  of  power.'  We 
read  usually  'at  the  right  hand  of  God.'  We  read  in 
this  Epistle  '  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  of  the 
Highest,'  and  also  *  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of 
the  Majesty  in  the  heavens.'  So  you  see  our  Lord 
Himself  dwelt  mainly  on  the  conception  of  participa- 
tion in  power.  And  these  other  passages  which  I 
have  quoted  deal  mainly  with  the  conception  of  the 
participation  in  royal  authority  and  dominion.  And 
these  two  go  together. 

Then  there  is  another  observation  to  be  made,  and  that 

F 


82  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

is  that  this  sitting  at  God's  right  hand  is  to  be  inter- 
preted as  purely  symbolical.  For  you  cannot  localise 
'the  right  hand  of  God.'  That  'right  hand'  is  every- 
where, wherever  the  divine  power  is  working.  So 
that,  though  I,  for  my  part,  believe  that  the  human 
corporeity  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  which  He  ascended 
into  the  heavens,  does  abide  in  a  locality,  it  is  not  that 
localisation  which  is  meant  by  this  great  symbol  of  my 
text,  but  it  is  the  declaration  of  a  state,  rather  than 
of  a  place— participation  in  the  power  that  belongs  to 
God,  and  not  a  session  in  a  given  locality. 

There  is  another  remark  also  to  be  made,  and  that  is 
that,  according  to  the  full-toned  belief  of  the  Christian 
Church  when  Jesus  Christ  in  His  ascension  returned 
to  the  Father,  from  whom  He  had  come,  He  carried 
with  Him  this  great  difference  between  His  then — that 
is  to  say,  His  present — state,  and  the  pre-incarnate 
state,  viz.,  that  now  He  has  carried  into  unity  with  the 
Father  the  glorified  manhood  which  He  assumed  on 
earth,  and  there  is  no  difference  between  the  glory 
which  He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was, 
and  the  glory  in  which  He  now  sits.  Humanity  is  thus 
gathered  into  divinity. 

Now,  brethren,  I  am  not  going  to  dwell  upon  these 
thoughts,  for  they  go  far  beyond  the  powers  of  my 
speech;  but  I  am  bound  by  my  own  conceptions  of 
what  Christ  Himself  has  taught  us,  to  reiterate  that 
here  we  have  the  plainest  teaching,  founded  on  His 
own  express  statement,  that  He  is  participant  of  divine 
fellowship,  so  close  as  that  it  is  represented  either  by 
being  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  or  by  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,  and  that  'all  power  is  given  unto 
Him  in  heaven  and  on  earth,'  so  as  that  He  is  the 
Administrator  of  the  universe.    The  hands  that  were 


V.  12]       THE  ENTHRONED  CHRIST  83 

pierced  with  the  nails,  and  into  one  of  which  waa 
thrust,  in  mockery,  the  reed  for  a  sceptre,  now  carry 
the  sceptre  of  the  universe,  and  He  is  'Kinjj  of  kint^s 
and  Lord  of  lords.'  '  He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Throne  of  the  Majesty  in  the  heavens.' 

Now  all  this  should  have  a  very  strong  practical 
effect  upon  us.  *  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek 
the  things  where  Christ  is,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of 
God.'  Oh,  brethren!  if  we  carried  with  us  day  by  day 
into  all  our  difliculties  and  struggles,  and  amidst  the 
glittering  fascinations  and  temptations  of  this  earthly 
life  that  great  thought,  and  if  we  kept  the  heavens 
open— for  we  can  do  so— and  keep  before  our  eyes  that 
vision,  how  small  the  difficulties,  what  molehills  the 
mountains,  and  how  void  of  charm  the  seducing 
temptations  would  then  be!  Christ  seen— like  the 
popular  idea  of  the  sunshine  streaming  down  upon  a 
coal  fire — puts  out  the  fuliginous  flame  of  earth's 
temptations,  and  dims  the  kindled  brightness  of  earth's 
light.  And  if  we  reallj'',  and  not  as  a  mere  dogma,  had 
incorporated  this  faith  into  our  lives,  how  different 
that  last  moment,  and  what  lies  beyond  it,  would  look. 
I  do  not  know  how  it  may  be  with  others,  but  to  me 
the  conception  of  eternity  is  chill  and  awful  and  repel- 
lent; it  seems  no  blessing  to  live  for  ever.  But  if  we 
people  the  waste  future  with  the  one  figure  of  the 
living  Christ  exalted  for  us,  it  all  becomes  different, 
and,  like  the  sunrise  on  snowy  summits,  the  chill 
lieights,  not  to  be  trodden  by  human  foot,  flash  up 
into  rosy  beauty  that  draws  men's  desires.  'I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  30U ' ;  and  He  prepares  it  by  being 
there  Himself,  for  then,  then  it  becomes  Home.  'And 
if  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you  I  will  come  again, 
and  receive  you  to  Myself,  that  where  I  am  there  yo 


84  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

may  be  also' — 'sitting  on  My  throne,  as  I  overcame, 
and  am  sat  down  with  My  Father  on  His  throne.' 


PERFECTED  AND  BEING  SANCTIFIED 

'By  one  oflfering  He  hath  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  sanctified.' 

Heb.  X.  14, 

In  the  preceding  sentence  there  is  another  'for  ever,' 
which  refers  to  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  declares  its 
perpetual  efficacy.  It  is  one,  the  world's  sins  are  many, 
but  the  single  sacrifice  is  more  than  all  of 'them.  It  is  a 
past  act,  but  its  consequences  are  eternal,  and  flow 
down  through  all  the  ages.  The  text  explains  wherein 
consists  the  perpetual  efficacy  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  and 
the  reason  why  it  needs  no  repetition  while  the  world 
lasts.  It  endures  for  ever,  because  it  has  perfected  for 
ever  them  that  are  sanctified. 

Now,  in  looking  at  these  words,  two  things  are 
noteworthy.  One  is  the  double  designation  here  of 
the  persons  whom  Christ  influences  by  His  offering, 
in  that  they  are  'perfected,'  and  in  that  they  are 
'  sanctified.'  Another  is  the  double  aspect  of  our  Lord's 
work  here  set  forth  in  regard  to  time,  in  that  it  is,  in 
the  first  part  of  the  sentence,  spoken  of  as  a  past  act 
whose  consequences  endure — '  He  hath  perfected ' — and 
in  the  latter  part  of  our  text,  according  to  the  accurate 
rendering,  it  is  spoken  of  as  continuous  and  progres- 
sive, as  yet  incomplete  and  going  on  to  perfection. 
For  the  text  ought  to  read—'  He  hath  perfected  for 
ever  them  that  are  being  sanctified.'  So  there  you  have 
these  two  things,  the  double  view  of  what  Christ  does, 
'  perfects '  and  '  sanctifies,'  and  the  double  view  of  His 
work,  in  that  in  one  aspect  it  is  past  and  complete,  and 


v.U]  PERFECTED  AND  SANCTIFIED      85 

in  another  aspect  it  is  running  on,  continuous,  and  as 
yet  unfinished. 

I.  First,  then,  look  at  the  twofold  aspect  of  the  effect 
of  Christ's  sacrifice. 

By  it  we  are  '  perfected,'  *  sanctified.*  Now,  these  two 
words,  so  to  speak,  cover  tlie  same  facts,  but  they  look 
at  them  from  two  different  points  of  view.  One  of 
them  looks  at  the  completed  Christian  character  from 
the  human  point  of  view,  and  the  other  looks  at  it 
from  the  divine.  For,  what  does  'perfect'  mean  in  the 
New  Testament?  It  means,  as  many  a  passage  might 
be  quoted  to  show,  '  mature,'  '  full  grown,'  in  opposition 
to  '  babes  in  Christ.'  This  very  Epistle  uses  the  two 
phrases  in  that  antithesis,  but  the  literal  meaning  of 
the  word  is  that  which  has  reached  its  end,  that  which 
has  attained  what  it  was  meant  to  be ;  and,  according 
to  the  New  Testament  teaching,  a  man  is  perfected 
when  he  has  all  his  capabilities  and  possibilities  of 
progress  and  goodness  and  communion  with  God 
made  into  realities  and  facts  in  His  life,  when  the  bud 
has  flowered,  and  the  flower  has  fruited.  When  capa- 
city is  developed,  privileges  enjoj^ed,  duties  attended 
to,  relationships  entered  into  and  maintained — when 
these  things  have  taken  j)lace  the  man  is  perfect.  It 
is  to  be  observed  that  there  is  no  reference  in  the 
word  to  any  standard  outside  of  human  nature.  If  a 
man  has  become  all  that  it  is  possible  for  him  to  be,  he 
is,  in  the  fullest  sense,  perfect.  But  Scripture  also 
recognises  a  relative  perfection,  as  we  have  already 
remarked,  which  consists  in  a  certain  maturity  of 
Christian  character,  and  has  for  its  opposite  the 
condition  of  '  babes  in  Christ.'  So  Paul  exhorts  '  as 
many  as  be  perfect  'to  be  '  thus  minded ' — namely,  not 
to    count    themselves    to    have    apprehended,  but   to 


86  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

stretch  forward  to  the  things  which  are  before,  and 
to  press  towards  the  goal  which  still  gleams  far  in 
advance. 

Consider,  now,  that  other  description  of  a  Christian 
character  as  *  sanctiiied.' 

The  same  set  of  facts  in  a  man's  nature  is  thought  of 
in  that  word,  only  they  are  looked  at  from  another 
point  of  view.  I  suppose  I  do  not  need  to  enlarge  upon 
the  fact  which,  however,  I  am  afraid  a  great  many 
good  people  do  not  realise  as  they  should,  that  the 
Biblical  notion  of  '  saint '  and  '  sanctified '  does  not  begin 
with  character,  but  with  relation,  or,  if  I  might  put  it 
more  plainly,  it  does  not,  primarily  and  to  start  with, 
mean  '  righteous,'  but  *  belonging  to  God.'  The  Old 
and  the  New  Testament  concur  in  this  conception  of 
'  sanctity,'  or  '  holiness,'  which  are  the  same  thing,  only 
one  is  a  Latin  word  and  the  other  a  Teutonic  one — 
namely,  that  it  starts  from  being  consecrated  and 
given  up  to  God,  and  that  out  of  that  consecration 
will  come  all  manner  of  righteousness  and  virtues, 
beauties  of  character,  and  dispositions  and  deeds  which 
all  men  own  to  be  'lovely  .  .  .  and  of  good  report.' 
The  saint  is,  first  of  all,  a  man  Avho  knows  that  he 
belongs  to  God,  and  is  glad  to  belong  to  Him,  and  then, 
afterwards,  he  becomes  righteous  and  pure  and  radiant, 
but  it  all  starts  with  yielding  myself  to  God. 

So  the  same  set  of  characteristics  which  in  the  word 
'perfected'  were  considered  as  fulfilling  the  idea  of 
manhood,  as  God  has  given  it  to  us,  are  massed  in  this 
other  word,  and  considered  as  being  the  result  of  our 
yielding  ourselves  to  Him.  That  is  to  say,  no  man  has 
reached  the  end  which  he  was  created  and  adapted  to 
reach,  unless  he  has  surrendered  himself  to  God.  You 
will  never  be  *  perfected '  until  you    are  *  sanctified.' 


v.H]  PERFECTED  AND  SANCTIFIED      87 

You  must  begin  with  consecration,  and  then  holiness 
of  character,  and  beauty  of  conduct,  and  purity  of 
heart  will  all  come  after  that.  It  is  vain  to  put  the 
cart  before  the  horse,  and  to  try  to  work  at  mending 
your  characters,  before  you  have  set  right  your  re- 
lationship to  God.  Begin  with  sanctifying,  and  you 
will  come  to  perfecting.  That  is  the  New  Testament 
teaching.  And  there  is  no  way  of  getting  to  that 
perfection  except,  as  we  shall  see,  through  the  one 
offering. 

II.  In  the  next  place  notice  here  the  completed  work. 

'By  one  offering  He  hath  "perfected"'  us,  the 
Christian  people  of  this  generation,  the  Christian 
people  yet  to  be  born  into  the  world,  the  men  that 
have  not  yet  learned  that  they  belong  to  Him,  but 
who  will  learn  it  some  day.  Were  they  all '  perfected ' 
eighteen  centuries  ago  ?  In  what  sense  ca-n  that 
perfecting  be  said  to  be  a  past  act  ?  Suppose  you  take 
some  purifying  agent,  and  throw  it  in  at  the  head- 
waters of  a  river,  and  it  goes  down  the  stream,  down 
and  down  and  down,  and  by  degrees  purifies  it  all. 
If  you  like  to  use  long-winded  words,  you  can  say  that 
'potentially'  the  river  was  purified  when  the  precipi- 
tating agent  was  flung  into  it,  though  its  waves  were 
still  foul  with  impurity.  Or  you  can  put  it  into  plainer 
English  and  say  that  the  past  act  has  its  abiding 
consequences,  for  there  has  been  thrown  into  the 
centre  of  human  history,  as  it  were,  that  which  is 
amply  adequate  to  the  '  perfecting' and  the  'sanctify- 
ing '  of  every  soul  of  the  race.  And  that  is  what  the 
writer  of  this  Epistle  means  when  he  says  '  He  hath 
perfected,'  because  that  sacrifice,  like  the  precipitating 
agent  that  I  have  spoken  about,  has  been  flung  into 
the  stream  of  the  world's  history,  and  has  power  to 


88  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

make  pure  as  the  dew-drop,  or  as  the  water  that  flows 
from  melting  ice,  every  foul-smelling,  darkly  dyed  drop 
of  the  filthy  stream. 

*By  one  offering.'  Now  the  word  that  the  writer 
employs  there  is  a  very  unusual  one  in  Scripture,  lie 
has  just  been  using  it  in  a  previous  verse,  where  he 
speaks  about  '  the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ.' 
Did  you  ever  notice  that  remarkable  expression  '  the 
offering  of  the  body,'  not  as  we  usually  read,  the  '  blood.' 
What  does  that  mean  ?  I  think  it  means  this,  that  the 
writer  is  contemplating  not  only  the  culminating 
sacrifice  of  Calvary,  but  Christ's  offering  of  Himself  all 
through  His  earthly  life  ;  and  knitting  together  in  one 
the  life  and  the  death,  the  totality  of  His  work,  as  that 
by  which  He  has  '  perfected  for  ever  all  them  that  are 
being  sanctified.'  And  that,  I  think,  is  made  quite 
certain,  because  he  has  just  been  speaking,  and  the 
words  of  my  text  refer  back  to  the  declaration  in  one 
of  the  psalms  'Lo!  I  come  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God,' 
as  expressing  the  whole  meaning  of  the  sacrifice 
of  Jesus  Christ.  That  saying  of  the  psalmist  was 
fulfilled  not  only  on  the  Cross  but  in  all  His  daily 
life. 

Jesus  Christ,  then,  in  His  whole  manifestation,  in 
His  life,  but  not  only  in  His  life ;  and  in  His  death,  but 
not  only  in  His  death,  has  offered  Himself  unto  God, 
'  the  Lamb  without  blemish,  and  without  spot.'  And  in 
that  offering  culminating  in  the  death  upon  the  Cross, 
but  not  confined  thereto,  there  does  lie  the  power 
which  is  triumphantly  more  than  adequate  to  deal 
with  all  the  foulnesses  and  sins  of  the  world,  and  to 
perfect  for  ever  any  man  that  attaches  himself  to  it. 
It  deals  with  our  guilt  as  nothing  else  can.  It  speaks 
to  our  consciences  as  nothing  else  can.    It  takes  away 


V.14]  PERFECTED  AND  SANCTIFIED       89 

all  the  agony  and  the  pain,  or  all  the  dogged  deadness, 
of  a  seared  conscience.  It  deals  with  character.  In 
that  great  offering,  considered  as  including  Christ's 
life  as  well  as  His  death,  and  considered  as  including 
Christ's  death  as  well  as  His  life,  you  have  folded  up 
in  indissoluble  unity  the  pattern,  the  motive,  and  the 
power  for  all  riglitcousness  of  character;  and  he 
reaches  the  end  for  which  God  created  him,  who, 
laying  his  hand  on  the  head  of  that  offering,  not  only 
transfers  his  sins  to  it,  but  receives  its  righteousness 
into  him.  By  one  offering  that  dealt  with  guilt,  and 
wiped  it  all  out,  and  that  deals  with  the  tyranny  of 
evil,  and  emancipates  us  from  it,  and  that  communi- 
cates to  us  a  new  life  formed  in  righteousness  after  the 
image  of  Him  that  created  us,  we  are  delivered  from 
the  burden  of  our  sins  and  perfected,  in  so  far  as  we 
lay  hold  of  the  power  that  is  meant  to  cleanse  us. 

There  is  no  other  way  of  being  perfected.  You  will 
never  reach  the  point  which  it  is  possible  for  you  to 
attain,  and  you  will  never  fulfil  the  purpose  for  which 
God  made  you,  unless  you  have  joined  yourself  by  faith 
to  Jesus  Christ,  and  are  receiving  into  your  life,  and 
developing  in  your  character,  the  power  which  He  has 
lodged  in  the  heart  of  humanity  for  redemption  and 
purifying. 

III.  Now  one  last  word.  We  have  here  the  con- 
tinuous and  progressive  work  of  Christ,  and  the 
growing  experience  of  Christians. 

As  I  have  remarked,  the  last  clause  of  ray  text  would 
be  more  completely  rendered  if  we  read,  *  them  that 
are  being  sanctified.'  The  same  idea  is  set  forth  by 
the  apostle  Paul  in  that  solemn  passage  in  the  first 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  where  he  speaks  about  the 
double  effect  of  the  gospel  upon  '  them  that  are  perish- 


90  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

ing,'  and  on  *  them  that  are  being  saved.'  In  both  cases 
there  is  a  process  going  on.  The  same  idea  is  brought 
out,  too,  in  the  other  expression  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  about  the  *  Lord  adding  to  the  Church  daily,' 
not,  as  the  Authorised  Aversion  has  it,  'such  as  should 
be  saved,'  but  '  them  that  were  being  saved.'  We  may 
speak  of  salvation  as  past,  as  all  included  in  the  initial 
act  by  which  we  are  knit  to  Jesus  Christ  through  faith, 
when  as  guilty  sinners  we  come  to  Him  and  cast  our- 
selves on  Ilim.  We  may  speak  of  salvation  as  being 
future,  and  lying  beyond  this  vale  of  tears  and  battle- 
field of  sins  and  sorrow.  But  we  can  speak  of  it  more 
accurately  than  in  either  of  these  aspects,  as  a  point 
in  the  past,  prolonged  into  a  line  in  the  present,  and 
running  on  into  the  future.  For  salvation  is  a  process 
which  is  going  on  day  by  day,  if  we  are  right,  and 
which  I  am  afraid  is  not  progressive  in  a  very  great 
many  professing  Christian  people.  Perfected,  I  said, 
meant  full-grown.  I  wonder  about  how  many  of  us  it 
would  need  to  be  said,  'Ye  are  babes  in  Christ,  and 
when  for  the  time  ye  ought  to  be  teachers  ye  have 
need  that  one  teach  you  which  be  the  first  principles 
of  the  oracles  of  God.'  Salvation  is  a  progressive 
process.  That  is  to  say,  if  we  are  truly  joined  to 
Jesus  Christ,  we  are  growingly  influenced  by  the 
powers  of  His  Cross  and  the  gift  of  His  Spirit.  There 
is  no  limit  to  that  growth.  It  is  like  a  spiral  which 
goes  up  and  up  and  up,  and  in  every  convolution 
draws  nearer  to  the  centre,  but  never  reaches  it. 
Our  hearts  and  spirits  are  wonderfully  elastic.  They 
can  take  in  a  great  deal  more  of  God  than  we  think 
they  can,  or  than  they  ever  have  taken  in.  We  can 
receive  just  as  much  of  that  infinite  Life  into  our  finite 
spirits  as  we  will.      Let  us   each  strive  to  get  more 


V.  u]   TERFECTED  AND  SANCTIFIED      91 

and  more  of  Jesus  Christ  in  us,  that  we  may  know 
Him,  and  the  'power  of  His  resurrection,  and  the 
fellowship  of  His  sufferings,'  more  fully,  more  deeply, 
and  may  keep  it  more  constantly. 

Oh,  brethren  !  if  we  are  not  ascending  the  ladder 
that  reaches  to  heaven,  which  is  Christ  Himself,  we 
are  descending;  and  if  we  are  not  growing  we  are 
dwindling;  and  if  we  cannot  say  that  we  are  being 
sanctified,  we  are  being  made  more  and  more  common 
and  profane. 

I  am  not  going  to  say  one  word  about  whether 
absolute  perfection  or  absolute  sanctification  can  be 
reached  in  this  life.  If  you  and  I  were  many  hundreds 
of  miles  farther  on  the  road,  it  would  be  worth  dis- 
cussing whether  we  could  reach  the  goal  or  not.  Never 
mind  about  the  possibilities  of  abstract  and  perfect 
sanctification,  we  are  a  good  long  way  off  that.  Look 
after  the  next  step  in  advance,  and  leave  the  ultimate 
one  to  take  care  of  itself.  Only  remember,  that  whilst 
Christ's  past  work  has  in  it  perpetual  and  absolute 
power  to  make  any  man  perfect,  no  man  will  be 
sanctified  unless  he  is  sanctified  by  'faith  that  is  in  Me,' 
and  by  the  effort  to  work  into  his  life  and  character 
the  gift  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and  of  the  life  of  Christ 
which  he  receives  by  faith.  It  is  '  them  that  are  being 
sanctified'  to  whom  the  large  hopes  of  this  great  text 
apply,  and  who  may  be  sure  that  one  day  they  will  be 
absolutely  perfected. 


A  BETTER  AND  AN  ENDURING  SUBSTANCE 

'Knowing  in  yourselves  that  ye  have  in  heaven  a  better  and  an  enduring 
substance.'— Heb.  x.  34. 

The  words  '  in  heaven '  are  probably  no  part  of  the 
original  text,  but  have  somehow  or  other  crept  in,  in 
order  to  make  more  plain  what  some  one  supposed  to 
be  the  reference  of  these  words  to  the  future  inheri- 
tance of  the  saints.  They,  however,  rather  disturb 
than  help  the  writer's  thought.  He  is  speaking  of  a 
present  and  not  of  a  future  possession.  '  Ye  have,'  and 
not '  ye  shall  have,'  a  better  and  an  '  enduring  posses- 
sion,' not  in  heaven,  but  here  and  now. 

But  even  if  these  words  be  expelled  from  the  text  as 
disturbing  the  writer's  thought,  there  still  remains  a 
variation  in  the  reading  of  some  importance.  It  is 
a  very  slight  difference  of  form  in  the  original,  but 
the  two  meanings  between  which  we  have  to  choose 
are  these :  '  Knowing  that  ye  have  yourselves  as  a 
better  and  an  enduring  possession';  o?',  'a  better  and 
an  enduring  possession  for  yourselves.'  I  am  inclined 
rather  to  the  former  of  the  two,  both  from  external 
authority  and  internal  congrnity,  though  the  choice 
between  them  is  difficult.  But,  if  we  accept  this  as  the 
meaning  of  these  words,  we  can  gather  from  them 
important  lessons,  of  which  I  ask  your  consideration. 

I.  The  true  possession. 

If  we  adopt  the  other  reading,  and  take  the  words  to 
mean  that,  in  so  far  as  we  are  truly  resting  on  Jesus,  we 
have  for  ourselves  an  inheritance  or  possession  better 
than  all  external  ones,  the  text  will  then  be  pointing 
to  the  old  thought  that  God  is  the  true  joy  and  treasure 

92 


V.  34]       AN  ENDURING  SUBSTANCE         93 

of  a  man's  soul.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  venture 
to  adopt  the  other  meaning,  there  is  great  depth  and 
beautj'  in  it,  representing,  as  it  does,  the  Christian  as 
having  himself  as  a  treasure.  It  may  strike  one  as 
strange,  hut  a  little  consideration  will  show  its  truth 
and  perfect  harmony  with  the  other  thought,  that  God 
is  the  treasure  of  every  soul  which  is  not  jDoor  and  in 
need  of  all  things.  'A  good  man  shall  be  satisfied 
from  himself,'  says  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  that  is 
no  arrogant  denial  of  the  need  for  God,  but  completely 
accords  with  the  devout  acknowledgment,  'All  my 
springs  are  in  Thee.'  In  the  very  snme  chapter  as  our 
text  we  read :  '  We  are  not  of  them  who  draw  back 
unto  perdition ;  but  of  them  that  believe  to  the  saving 
of  their  souls,'  which  might  be  more  accurately 
rendered,  *  to  the  acquisition  as  their  own  of  their 
souls.'  Remember,  too,  our  Lord's  words:  'In  your 
patience  ye  shall  acquire  possession  of  your  souls.' 
If  we  take  these  sayings  into  account,  we  need  not 
hesitate  to  admit  that,  at  all  events,  there  is  a  great 
deal  to  be  said  for  the  somewhat  remarkable  expres- 
sion in  the  text. 

It  just  comes  to  this.  No  man  possesses  himself 
until  he  has  given  up  himself.  We  only  own  ourselves 
when  we  have  parted  with  ourselves.  Until  we  have 
yielded  ourselves  in  acts  of  dependent  faith  and 
rejoicing  love  and  docile  obedience  unto  God,  we  have 
no  real  possession  of  ourselves.  He,  and  only  he,  who 
says,  '  I  give  myself  away  to  Thee,'  gets  himself  back 
again  sanctified,  gladdened,  ennobled,  and  on  the 
way  to  be  perfected  by  his  surrender  and  God's 
reception. 

We  own  ourselves  only  on  condition  of  being 
Christian  men.    For,  under  all  other  circumstances  and 


94  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

forms  of  life,  the  true  self  is  domineered  over  aud 
brought  into  slavery  and  dragged  away  from  its  proper 
bearings  by  storms  and  swarms  of  lusts  and  passions 
and  inclinations  and  ambitions  and  senses.  A  man's 
flesh  is  his  master,  or  his  pride  is  his  master,  or  some 
fraction  of  his  nature  is  his  master,  and  he  himself 
is  an  oppressed  slave,  tyrannised  over  by  rebellious 
powers.  The  only  way  to  get  the  mastery  of  your- 
selves, to  be  able  to  keep  a  tight  hand  upon  all  inferior 
parts  of  your  nature,  and  to  have  that  self-command 
and  self-possession  without  which  there  is  nothing 
noble  in  life,  is  to  go  to  God  and  say,  '  Oh,  Lord  !  I 
cannot  rule  this  anarchic  being  of  mine.  Do  Thou 
take  it  into  Thine  hands.  Here  are  the  reins :  do  with 
me  what  Thou  wilt.'  Then  you  will  be  your  own 
masters,  not  till  then.  Then  you  will  own  yourselves  ; 
till  then,  the  devil  and  the  world  and  the  flesh,  and  the 
pomps  aud  prides  and  passions  and  lusts  and  lazinesses 
that  are  in  your  nature  will  own  you.  But  if  we  have 
exercised  the  faith  which  casts  itself  wholly  upon  God, 
we  therein  and  thereby  win  God  and  our  own  selves 
also,  and  that  is  one  of  the  meanings  of  'saving  our 
own  souls.' 

Or,  to  put  it  in  another  light,  the  only  things  worth 
calling  treasures  and  possessions  are  true  thoughts  that 
we  have  learned  from  God ;  pure  affections  that  go 
out  to  Him;  yearning  desires  after  Him,  which,  in 
their  very  yearning,  bear  the  prophecy,  and  are  to 
a  large  extent  the  foretaste,  of  their  own  fruition. 

These  are  the  things  that  make  a  man's  treasure. 
The  inner  life  of  obedience,  of  love,  of  trust,  the 
conscience  cleansed,  the  will  made  plastic  and  docile, 
the  heart  filled  with  all  pure  and  heavenward  affec- 
tions, aspirations  that  lift  us  above  self  and  time,  and 


V.34J      AN  ENDURING  SUBSTANCE  95 

bring  us  into  the  sweet  and  calin  light  of  the  Eternal 
Love  whose  name  is  God  -  these  are  the  possessions 
which  are  worth  possessing.  And  he,  and  only  he,  has 
such  who  has  found  them  in  lowly  submission  of  his 
sinful  self  to  Christ  who  has  died  that  our  spirits 
might  be  cleansed  and  given  back  unto  us. 

Brethren,  the  realisation  of  this  possession  of  our- 
selves depends  on  our  faith.  Stoics  and  moralists  and 
lofty  souled  men  in  all  ages  have  talked  about  the  true 
possession  of  oneself,  which  comes  by  self-surrender 
and  annihilation,  but  Christian  faith  realises  the  dream, 
and  they  only  find  the  reality  who  pass  towards  it 
through  the  gate  of  trust  in  Jesus  Christ.  Then,  and 
only  then,  will  the  old  English  poet's  lovely  picture  be 
fulfilled,  and  the  man's  soul 

*  Made  free  from  slavish  bands, 
Of  hope  to  rise,  or  fear  to  fall ; 
Lord  of  hiinself,  though  not  of  lands  ; 
And  having  nothing,  yet  hath  all.' 

II.  Note,  again,  how  here  we  hear  asserted  the 
superiority  of  this  possession. 

It  is  *  better '  in  its  essential  quality.  That  does  not 
need  many  words.  Surely  these  possessions  of  heart 
and  mind  and  will  and  desires  all  brought  into  fellow- 
ship with  and  filled  by  God  are  things  more  corre- 
spondent with  the  nature  of  man  and  his  needs  than 
any  accumulation  of  outward  possessions  can  ever  be. 
And  surely  it  is  a  plain  piece  of  prose,  and  no  exagger- 
ated religious  enthusiasm,  which  says,  '  Whom  have  I 
in  heaven  but  Thee,  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that 
1  desire  besides  Thee.'  Men  call  it  mysticism.  It  is  the 
very  foundation  of  all  true  religion.  The  apprehension 
of  union  with  God  is  the  one  thing  that  will  satisfy  tlio 


96  PIEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

soul;  the  one  thing  that  we  need,  ■which  having,  we 
cannot  be  wholly  desolate,  however  dark  may  be  our 
path,  nor  wholly  solitary,  however  lonely  may  be  our 
lot,  nor  utterly  bereaved,  however  blessings  may  be 
dragged  from  our  hands ;  and  without  which  we  can- 
not be  at  rest,  however  compassed  with  stays  and 
succours  and  treasures  and  friends ;  nor  rich,  however 
we  may  have  bursting  coffers  and  all  things  to 
enjoy. 

The  possession  which  we  carry  within  us  is  better 
than  any  which  we  can  gather  round  us.  'Surely  he 
is  disquieted  in  vain,  he  heapeth  up  treasures ' — and 
the  very  fact  that  they  need  to  be  '  heaped,'  and  that 
that  is  all  that  he  can  do  with  them,  shows  the  vanity 
of  the  disquiet  that  raked  them  together.  Not  what 
a  man  has,  but  what  a  man  is,  is  his  wealth. 

And  the  better  treasure  is  an  enduring  possession. 
That  is  the  second  element  of  its  excellence.  These 
things,  the  calm  joys,  the  pure  delights  of  still  fellow- 
ship with  God  in  heart  and  mind  and  will — these 
things  have  in  them  no  seed  of  decay.  These  cannot 
be  separated  from  their  possessor  by  anything  but  his 
own  unfaithfulness.  There  will  never  come  the  time 
when  they  shall  have  to  be  left  behind.  Use  does  not 
wear  these  out,  but  strengthens  and  increases  them. 
The  things  which  are  destined  'to  perish  with  the 
using '  belong  to  an  inferior  category.  All  the  best 
things  are  intended  and  destined  to  increase  with  the 
using,  and  this  treasure,  the  more  it  is  expended  the 
fuller  is  the  coffer,  and  the  more  we  exercise  the  love, 
the  communion,  the  obedience  which  make  our  true 
riches,  the  more  do  the  riches  increase.  And  then, 
when  all  other  things  drop  from  their  nerveless  hands; 
and  '  His  glory ' — whose  glory  was  in  outward  things— 


V.  34]      AN  ENDURING  SUBSTANCE  97 

'shall  not  descend  after  bim,'  we  shall  carry  these 
treasures  with  us  wherever  we  go,  and  find  that  they 
were  the  pledge  of  immortality. 

III.  My  text,  lastlj',  suggests  to  us  the  quiet  superiority 
to  earthly  loss  and  change  which  the  possession  of  this 
treasure  involves. 

The  writer  is  speaking  to  Christian  men  who  have 
endured  a  great  fight  of  a  mictions,  and  he  says  of 
them,  'Ye  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  your  goods, 
because  you  knew  that  you  bad  this  better  and  endur- 
ing substance.'  Joyfully  !  When  you  strike  away  the 
false  props  the  strength  of  the  real  ones  becomes  more 
conspicuous.  And  many  and  many  a  time  we  may 
experience,  unless  we  waste  our  discipline  and  our 
sorrows,  that  the  surest  way  to  become  richer  towards 
God  is  to  lose  the  earthly  staj's  and  supports.  But 
whether  that  be  so  or  no,  he  who  sits  in  the  centre,  and 
has  the  light  round  him,  need  not  mind  much  what 
storms  are  raging  without,  and  he  whose  inexpugnable 
fortress  is  within  the  depths  of  God  may  smile  at  all 
the  hubbub  and  confusion  down  in  the  valley.  If  we 
possess  this  true  treasure  which  lies  at  our  doors,  and 
may  be  had  for  the  taking,  we  shall  be  like  men  in 
some  strong  fortress,  with  firm  walls,  abundant 
provisions,  and  a  well  in  the  courtyard,  and  we  can 
laugh  at  besiegers.  '  His  abiding  place  sliall  be  the 
munitions  of  rocks ;  his  bread  shall  be  given  him  and 
his  water  shall  be  made  sure.'  We  may  be  quiet  and 
lofty,  infinitely  above  the  fear  of  chance  and  change, 
if  we  keep  the  firm  hold  which  we  may  keep  of 
the  enduring  riches  which  God  brings  with  Him  into 
our  souls. 

Some  of  you  may  be  in  circumstances  which  make 
such  thoughts    as    these    specially    applicable,    either 

a 


98  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

because  dark  days  may  be  threatening,  or  because  the 
sunshine  of  prosperity  may  be  dazzling  some  eyes  and 
making  them  lose  sight  of  their  true  wealth.  To  the 
one  class  the  thought  of  my  text  is  gathered  up  in 
the  warning,  '  Charge  them  that  they  trust  not  in  the 
uncertainty  of  riches,  but  in  the  living  God.'  And,  to 
the  other  class,  the  text  should  quicken  and  consolidate 
the  resolve,  'What  time  I  am  afraid  I  will  trust  in 
Thee.  Thou  art  the  strength  of  my  heart,  and  mine 
inheritance  for  ever.' 


HOW  TO  OWN  OURSELVES 

'Them  that  believe  to  the  saving  of  the  soul.'— Heb.  x.  39. 

The  writer  uses  a  somewhat  uncommon  word  in  this 
clause,  which  is  not  altogether  adequately  represented 
by  the  translation  'saving.'  Its  true  force  will  be 
apparent  by  comparing  one  or  two  of  the  few  instances 
in  which  it  occurs  in  the  New  Testament.  For  example, 
it  is  twice  employed  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians ; 
in  one  case  being  rendered,  '  God  hath  not  appointed  us 
to  wrath,  but  to  obtain'  (or,  more  correctly,  to  the 
ohtaininy  of)  '  salvation  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ' ;  and 
in  another,  'called  to  the  obtaining  of  glory  through 
Jesus  Christ.'  It  is  employed  twice  besides  in  two 
other  places  of  Scripture,  and  in  both  of  these  it  means 
'possession.'  So  that,  though  practically  equivalent 
to  the  idea  of  salvation,  there  is  a  very  beautiful  shade 
of  difference  which  is  well  worth  noticing. 

The  thought  of  the  text  is  substantially  this — those 
who  believe  ivin  their  souls;  they  acquire  them  for 
their  possession.  We  talk  colloquially  about  'people 
that  cannot  call  their  souls  their  own.'    That  is  a  very 


V.39]       HOW  TO  OWN  OURSELVES  99 

true  description  of  all  men  who  are  not  lords  of  them- 
selves through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  'They  who 
believe  to  the  gaining  of  their  own  souls'  is  the  mean- 
ing of  the  writer  here. 

And  I  almost  think  that  we  may  trace  in  this  peculiar 
expression  an  allusion,  somewhat  veiled  but  real,  to 
similar  words  of  our  Lord's.  For  He  said,  when,  like 
the  writer  in  the  present  context.  He  was  encouraging 
His  disciples  to  steadfastness  in  the  face  of  difficulties 
and  persecutions, '  In  your  patience' — in  your  persistent 
adherence  to  Me,  whatever  might  draw  you  away, — 'ye 
shall  win' — not  merely  possess,  as  our  Bible  has  it,  and 
not  a  commandment,  but  a  promise — 'in  your  patience 
ye  shall  win  your  souls.'  Whether  that  allusion  be 
sustainable  or  no  matters  comparatively  little ;  it  is  the 
significant  and  beautiful  thought  which  underlies  the 
word  to  which  I  wish  to  turn,  and  to  present  you  with 
some  illustrations  of  it. 

I.  First,  then,  if  we  lose  ourselves  we  win  ourselves. 

All  men  admit  in  theory  that  a  self-centred  life  is 
a  blunder.  Jesus  Christ  has  all  moralists  and  all 
thoughtful  men  wholly  with  Him  when  He  says,  'He 
that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and  he  that  loseth  his 
life  shall  find  it.'  There  is  no  such  way  of  filling  a  soul 
with  enlargement  and  blessedness  and  of  evolving  new 
powers  and  capacities  as  self-oblivion  for  some  great 
cause,  for  some  great  love,  for  some  great  enthusiasm. 
Many  a  woman  has  found  herself  when  she  held  her 
child  in  her  arms,  and  in  the  self-oblivion  which  comes 
from  maternal  affections  and  cares  has  sprung  into  a 
loftier  new  life.  Many  a  heart,  of  husband  and  wife, 
can  set  its  seal  to  this  truth,  that  the  blessedness  of 
love  is  that  it  decentralises  the  soul,  and  substitutes 
another  aim  for  the  wretched  and  narrow  one  that  ii 


100  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

involved  in  self-seeking.  And  even  if  we  do  not  refer 
to  these  sacred  heights  of  maternal  or  of  wedded  love, 
there  are  many  other  noble  counterpoises  to  the  de- 
grading influence  of  self-absorption,  which  all  men 
recognise  and  some  men  practise.  Whoever  has  once 
tasted  the  joy  and  rapture  of  flinging  himself  into  some 
great  enthusiasm,  and  has  known  how  much  fuller  life 
is  when  so  inspired  than  in  its  ordinary  forms,  needs 
no  words  to  convince  him  that  the  secret  of  blessedness, 
elevation,  and  power,  if  it  is  to  be  put  into  one  great 
word,  must  be  put  into  this  one,  *  self-oblivion.' 

But  whilst  all  these  counterpoises  to  the  love  of  self 
are,  in  their  measure  and  degree,  great  and  noble  and 
blessed,  not  one  of  them,  nor  all  of  them  put  together, 
will  so  break  the  fetters  from  off  a  prisoned  soul  and 
let  it  out  into  the  large  place  of  utter  and  glad  self- 
oblivion  as  the  course  which  our  text  enjoins  upon  us 
when  it  says:  If  you  wish  to  forget  yourselves,  to 
abandon  and  lose  yourselves,  fling  yourselves  into 
Christ's  arms,  and  by  faith  yield  your  whole  being,  will, 
trust,  purposes,  aims,  everything — yield  them  all  to 
Him ;  and  when  you  can  say,  '  We  are  not  our  own,' 
then  first  will  you  belong  to  yourselves  and  have  won 
your  own  souls. 

There  is  nothing  except  that  absolute  departure 
from  all  reliance  upon  our  own  poor  powers,  and  from 
all  making  of  ourselves  our  centre  and  aim  in  life, 
which  gives  us  true  possession  of  ourselves.  Nothing 
else  is  comparable  to  the  talismanic  power  of  trust  in 
Jesus  Christ.  When  thus  we  lose  ourselves  in  Him  we 
find  ourselves,  and  find  Him  in  ourselves. 

I  believe  that,  at  bottom,  a  life  must  either  spin  round 
on  its  own  axis,  self-centred  and  self- moved,  or  else  it 
must  be  drawn  by  the  mass  and  weight  and  mystical 


V.39]      HOW  TO  OWN  OURSELVES         101 

attractiveness  of  the  great  central  sun,  and  swept  clean 
out  of  its  own  little  path  to  become  a  satellite  round 
Him.  Then  only  will  it  move  in  music  and  beauty,  and 
flash  back  the  lustre  of  an  unfading  light.  Self  or  God, 
one  or  other  will  be  the  centre  of  every  human  life. 

It  is  well  to  be  touched  with  lofty  enthusiasms;  it  is 
well  to  conquer  self  in  the  eager  pursuit  of  some  great 
thought  or  large  subject  of  study ;  it  is  well  to  conquer 
self  in  the  sweetness  of  domestic  love ;  but  through  all 
these  there  may  run  a  perverting  and  polluting  reference 
to  myself.  Affection  may  become  but  a  subtle  prolonga- 
tion of  myself,  and  study  and  thought  may  likewise  be 
tainted,  and  even  in  the  enthusiasm  for  a  great  cause 
there  may  mingle  much  of  self-regard ;  and  on  the 
whole  there  is  nothing  that  will  sweep  out,  and  keep 
out,  the  seven  devils  of  selfishness  except  to  yield  your- 
selves to  God,  drawn  by  His  mercies,  and  say,  '  I  am  not 
my  own ;  I  am  bought  with  a  price.'  Then,  and  only 
then,  will  you  belong  to  yourselves. 

II.  Secondly,  if  we  will  take  Christ  for  our  Lord  we 
shall  be  lords  of  our  own  souls. 

I  have  said  that  self-surrender  is  self-possession.  It 
is  equally  true  that  self-control  is  self-possession ;  and 
it  is  as  true  about  this  application  of  my  text  as  it  was 
about  the  former,  that  Christianity  only  says  more  em- 
phatically what  moralists  say,  and  suggests  and  supplies 
a  more  efficient  means  of  accomplishing  the  end  which 
they  all  recognise  as  good.  For  everybody  knows  that 
the  man  who  is  a  slave  to  his  own  passions,  lusts,  or 
desire  is  not  his  own  master.  And  everybody  knows 
that  the  man  who  is  the  sport  of  circumstance,  and 
yields  to  every  temptation  that  comes  sweeping  round 
him,  as  bamboos  bend  before  every  blast;  or  the  man 
who  is  guided  by  fashion,  conventionality,  custom,  and 


102  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

the  influence  of  the  men  amongst  whom  he  lives,  and 
whom  he  calls  '  the  world,'  is  not  his  own  master,  lie 
'  dare  not  call  his  soul  his  own.' 

What  do  we  mean  by  being  self-possessed,  except 
this,  that  we  can  so  rule  our  more  fluctuating  and 
sensitive  parts  as  that,  notwithstanding  appeals  made 
to  them  by  external  circumstances,  they  do  not 
necessarily  yield  to  these?  He  possesses  himself  who, 
in  the  face  of  antagonism,  can  do  what  is  right;  who, 
in  the  face  of  temptation,  will  not  do  what  is  wrong ; 
who  can  dare  to  be  in  the  right  with  one  or  two ;  and 
who  is  not  moulded  by  circumstances,  howsoever  they 
may  influence  him,  but  reacts  upon  them  as  a  hammer, 
and  is  not  as  an  anvil.  And  this  superiority  over  the 
parts  of  my  nature  which  are  meant  to  be  kept  down, 
and  this  assertion  of  independent  power  in  the  face 
of  circumstances,  and  this  freedom  from  the  dominion 
of  cliques  and  parties  and  organs  of  opinion  and 
loud  voices  round  us,  this  is  best  secured  in  its 
fulness  and  completeness  by  the  path  which  my  text 
suggests. 

Trust  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  let  Him  be  your  Com- 
mander-in-chief, and  you  have  won  your  souls.  Let 
Him  dominate  them,  and  you  can  dominate  them. 
If  you  will  give  your  wills  into  His  hands,  He  will 
give  them  back  to  you  and  make  you  able  to  subdue 
your  passions  and  desires.  Put  the  reins  into  Christ's 
hands  and  say,  'Here,  O  Lord,  guide  Thou  the  horses 
and  the  chariot,  for  I  cannot  coerce  them,  but  Thou 
canst.'  Then  He  will  come  and  bring  a  new  ally  in 
the  field,  and  cast  a  new  weight  into  the  scale,  and 
you  will  no  longer  be  the  slave  of  the  servile  and 
inferior  parts  of  your  nature;  nor  be  kicked  about, 
the    football    of   circumstances ;    nor   be  the  echo  of 


V.39]       HOW  TO  OWN  OURSELVES        103 

some  other  body's  views,  but  j'ou  will  have  a  voice  of 
your  own,  and  a  will  of  your  own,  and  a  soul  of  your 
own,  because  you  have  given  them  to  Christ,  and  He 
will  help  you  to  control  them.  Such  a  man — and  I 
verily  believe,  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  such  a 
man  only — in  the  fullest  sense,  is 

*  Free  from  slavish  bands, 
Of  hope  to  rise,  or  fear  to  fall ; 
Lord  of  himself,  though  not  of  lands  ; 
And  having  nothing,  yet  hath  all.' 

What  does  some  little  rajah,  on  the  edge  of  our 
great  Indian  Empire,  do  when  troubled  with  rebels 
whom  he  cannot  subdue?  He  goes  and  makes  himself 
a  feudatory  of  the  great  central  power  at  Calcutta, 
and  then  down  comes  a  regiment  or  two,  and  makes 
very  short  work  of  the  rebellion  that  the  little  kinglet 
could  do  nothing  with.  If  you  go  to  Christ  and  say 
to  Him,  '  Dear  Lord,  I  take  my  crown  from  my  head 
and  lay  it  at  Thy  feet.  Come  Thou  to  help  me  to 
rule  this  anarchic  realm  of  my  own  soul,'  you  will  win 
yourself. 

III.  Thirdly,  if  we  have  faith  in  Christ  we  acquire  a 
better  self. 

The  thing  that  most  thoughtful  men  and  women 
feel,  after  they  have  gone  a  little  way  into  life,  is  not 
so  much  that  they  want  to  possess  themselves,  as 
that  they  want  to  get  rid  of  themselves — of  all  the 
failures  and  shame  and  disappointment  and  futility  of 
their  lives.  That  desire  may  be  accomplished.  We 
cannot  strip  ourselves  of  ourselves  by  any  effort. 
The  bitter  old  past  keeps  living  on,  and  leaves  with 
us  seeds  of  weakness  and  memories  that  sometimes 
corrupt,  and  always  enfeeble :  memories  that  seem  to 


104  HEBREWS  [ch.  x. 

limit  the  possibilities  of  the  future  in  a  tragic  fashion. 
Ah,  brethren !  we  can  get  rid  of  ourselves ;  and,  instead 
of  continuing  the  poor,  sin-laden,  feeble  creatures  that 
we  are,  we  can  have  pouring  into  our  souls  the  gift 
most  real— though  people  nowadays,  in  their  shallow 
religion,  call  it  mystical— of  a  new  impulse  and  a  new 
life.  The  old  individuality  will  remain,  but  new 
tastes,  new  aspirations,  aversions,  hopes,  and  capaci- 
ties to  realise  them  may  all  be  ours,  so  that  'if  any 
man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature ' ;  and  in  barter 
for  the  old  garment  he  receives  the  robe  of  righteous- 
ness. You  can  lose  yourselves,  in  a  very  deep  and 
earnest  sense,  if,  trusting  in  Jesus  Christ,  you  open 
the  door  of  the  heart  to  the  influx  of  that  new  life 
which  is  His  best  gift.  Faith  wins  a  better  self,  and 
we  may  each  experience,  in  all  its  fulness  and  blessed- 
ness, the  paradox  of  the  apostle  when  he  said,  '  I  live ' 
now,  at  last,  in  triumphant  possession  of  this  better 
life :  '  I  live '  noio—1  only  existed  before — '  yet  not  I, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me.'  And  with  Christ  in  me  I 
first  find  myself. 

IV.  Lastly,  if  by  faith  we  win  our  souls  here,  we 
save  them  from  destruction  hereafter. 

I  have  said  that  the  word  of  my  text  is  substantially 
equivalent  to  the  more  frequent  and  common  expres- 
sion '  salvation ' ;  though  with  a  shade  of  difference, 
which  I  have  been  trying  to  bring  out.  And  this  sub- 
stantial equivalence  is  more  obvious  if  you  will  note 
that  the  text  is  the  second  member  of  an  antithesis  of 
which  the  first  is,  'we  are  not  of  them  which  draw 
back  into  perdition.' 

So,  then,  the  writer  sets  up,  as  exact  opposites  of  one 
another,  these  two  ideas — perdition  or  destruction  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  saving  or  winning  of  the  soul  on 


V.  39]       HOW  TO  OWN  OURSELVES        105 

the  other.  Therefore,  whilst  we  must  give  due  weight 
to  the  considerations  which  I  have  already  been 
suggesting,  we  shall  not  grasp  the  whole  of  the  writer's 
meaning  unless  we  admit  also  the  thought  of  the 
future.  And  that  the  same  blending  of  the  two  ideas, 
of  possession  and  salvation  in  the  more  usual  sense  of 
the  word,  was  implied  in  the  Lord's  saying,  of  which  I 
have  suggested  there  may  be  an  echo  here,  is  plain  if 
you  observe  that  the  version  in  St.  Luke  gives  the 
text  which  I  have  already  quoted :  '  In  your  patience 
ye  shall  win  your  souls';  and  that  of  St.  Matthew, 
in  the  same  connection,  gives,  instead,  the  saying, 
'  he  that  endw-eth ' — which  corresponds  with  jiatience — 
*  he  that  endureth  to  the  end,  the  same  shall  be  saved.' 

So,  then,  brethren,  you  cannot  be  said  to  have  won 
your  souls  if  you  are  only  keeping  them  for  destruction, 
and  such  destruction  is  clearly  laid  down  here  as  the 
fate  of  those  who  turn  away  from  Jesus  Christ. 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  fair  interpretation  can 
eject  from  that  word  'perdition,'  or  'destruction,'  an 
element  of  awe  and  terror.  However  you  may  interpret 
the  ruin,  it  is  ruin  utter  of  which  it  speaks.  And  I  am 
very  much  afraid  that  in  this  generation  eager  discus- 
sions about  the  duration  of  punishment,  and  the  final 
condition  of  those  who  die  impenitent,  have  had  a 
disastrous  influence  on  a  great  many  minds  and  con- 
sciences in  reference  to  this  whole  subject,  by  making 
it  rather  a  subject  of  controversy  than  a  solemn  truth 
to  be  pondered.  However  the  controversies  be  settled, 
there  is  terror  enough  left  in  that  word  to  make  us  all 
bethink  ourselves. 

I  lay  it  on  your  hearts,  dear  friends — it  is  no  business 
of  mine  to  say  much  about  it,  but  I  lay  it  on  your 
hearts  and  on  my  own;  and  I  beseech  you  to  ponder 


106  HEBREWS  [ch.  xl 

it.  Do  not  mix  it  up  with  wholly  independent  questions 
as  to  what  is  to  become  of  people  who  never  heard 
about  Jesus  Christ.  'The  Judge  of  all  the  earth  will 
do  right.'  "What  this  verse  says  applies  to  people  that 
have  heard  about  Him — that  is,  to  you  and  me — and  to 
people  that  do  not  accept  Him — and  that  is  some  of  us ; 
and  about  them  it  says  that  they  'draw  back  unto 
perdition.' 

Now,  remember,  the  alternative  applies  to  each  of  us. 
It  is  a  case  of  'either — or'  in  regard  to  us  all.  If  we 
have  taken  Christ  for  our  Saviour,  and,  as  I  said,  put 
the  reins  into  His  hands  and  given  ourselves  to  Him  by 
love  and  submission  and  confidence,  then  we  own  our 
souls,  because  we  have  given  them  to  Him  to  keep, 
'and  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  is  committed  to 
Him  against  that  day.' 

But  I  am  bound  to  tell  you,  in  the  plainest  words  1 
can  command,  that  if  you  have  not  thus  surrendered 
yourself  to  Jesus  Christ,  His  sacrifice,  His  intercession, 
His  quickening  Spirit,  then  I  know  not  where  you  are 
to  find  one  foothold  of  hope  that  upon  you  there  will 
not  come  down  the  overwhelming  fate  that  is  darkly 
portrayed  in  that  one  solemn  word. 

Oh,  brethren !  let  us  all  ponder  the  question,  '  What 
shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
lose  his  own  soul  ? ' 


SEEKING  GOD 

'He  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  Him.'— Heb.  xl.  6. 

The  writer  has  been  pointing  to  the  patriarch  Enoch 
as  the  second  of  these  examples  of  the  power  of  faith 
in  the  Old  Covenant ;  and  it  occurs  to  him  that  there  is 
nothing  said  in  Genesis  about  Enoch's  faith,  so  he  sets 


V.6]  SEEKING  GOD  107 

about  showing  that  he  must  have  had  faith,  because  he 
'  walked  with  God,'  and  pleased  Ilini,  and  no  man  could 
thus  walk  with  God,  and  please  Him,  unless  he  had 
come  to  Him,  and  no  man  could  come  to  a  God  in  whom 
he  did  not  believe,  and  whom  ho  did  not  believe  to  be 
waiting  to  help  and  bless  him,  when  he  did  come.  So 
the  facts  of  Enoch's  life  show  that  there  must  have 
been  in  him  an  underlj'ing  faith.  That  is  all  that  I  need 
to  say  about  the  context  of  the  words  before  us.  I  am 
not  going  to  speak  of  the  writer  s  argument,  but  only 
of  this  one  aspect  of  the  divine  character  which  is 
brought  out  here.  '  Ho  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  Him.' 

I.  Now  a  word  about  the  seeking. 

'Seek?'  Do  we  need  to  seek?  Not  in  the  w%ay  in 
which  people  go  in  quest  of  a  thing  that  they 
have  lost  and  do  not  know  where  to  find.  We 
do  not  need  to  search ;  we  do  not  need  to  seek. 
The  beginning  of  all  our  seeking  is  that  God  has 
sought  us  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  so  we  have  done  for  ever 
with  :  '  Oh  !  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him.'  We 
have  done  for  ever  with  'feeling  after  Him,  if  haply 
we  might  find  Him.'  That  is  all  past.  We  have  to 
seek,  but  let  us  never  forget  that  we  must  have  been 
found  of  Him,  before  we  seek  Him.  That  is  to  say.  He 
must  have  revealed  Himself  to  us  in  the  fulness  and 
reality  and  solid  certainty  of  His  existence  and  char- 
acter, before  there  can  be  kindled  in  any  heart  or  mind 
the  desire  to  possess  Him.  He  must  have  flashed  His 
light  upon  the  eye  before  the  eye  beholds  ;  and  He  must 
have  stimulated  the  desire  by  the  revelation  of  Himself 
which  comes  before  all  desires,  ere  any  of  us  will  stir 
ourselves  up  to  lay  hold  upon  God.  Ours,  then,  is  not  to 
be  a  doubtful  search,  but  a  certain  seeking,  that  goes 


108  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

straight  to  the  place  where  it  knows  that  its  treasure 
is,  just  as  a  migratory  bird  will  set  out  from  the  foggy 
and  ice-bound  shores  of  the  north,  and  go  straight 
through  the  mists  and  the  night,  over  continents  and 
oceans,  to  a  place  where  it  never  was  before,  but  to 
which  it  is  led — God  only  knows  how — by  some  deep 
instinct,  too  deep  to  be  an  error,  and  too  persistent  not 
to  find  its  resting-place.  That  is  how  we  are  to  seek. 
We  are  to  seek  as  the  flower  turns  its  opening  petals 
to  the  sunshine,  making  no  mistake  as  to  the  quarter 
of  the  heaven  in  which  the  radiance  is  lodged.  We 
have  to  seek,  as  the  rootlet  goes  straight  to  the  river, 
knowing  where  the  water  is,  from  which  life  and  sap 
will  come.  Thus  we  have  to  seek  where  and  what  we 
know.  Our  quest  is  no  doubtful  and  miserable  hunting 
about  for  a  possible  good,  but  an  earnest  desire  for 
a  certain  and  a  solid  blessing.     That  is  the  seeking. 

Let  us  put  it  into  two  or  three  plain  words.  The 
prime  requisite  of  the  Christian's  seeking  after  God  is 
as  the  writer  here  says,  faith.  I  need  not  dwell  upon 
that.  'Must  believe  that  He  is' — yes;  of  course.  We 
do  not  seek  after  negations  or  hypotheses;  we  seek 
after  a  living  Being.  '  And  that  He  is  the  Rewarder  of 
them  that  diligently  seek  Him ' — yes ;  if  we  were  not 
sure  that  we  should  find  what  we  wanted,  we  should 
never  go  to  look  for  it.  But,  beyond  all  that,  let  me 
put  three  things  as  included  in,  and  necessary  to,  the 
Christian  seeking — desire,  effort,  prayer.  We  seek 
what  we  desire.  But  too  many  of  us  do  not  wish  God, 
and  would  not  know  what  to  do  with  Him  if  we  had 
Him,  and  would  be  very  much  embarrassed  if  it  were 
possible  for  the  full  blessings  which  come  along  with 
Him,  to  be  entrusted  to  our  slack  hands  and  unloving 
hearts.    Brethren,  we  call  ourselves  Christians ;  let  us 


V.6]  SEEKING  GOD  109 

be  honest  with  ourselves,  and  rigid  in  the  investigation 
of  the  thoughts  of  our  own  hearts.  Is  there  a  wish  for 
God  there?  Is  there  an  aching  void  in  His  absence,  or 
do  wo  shovel  cartloads  of  eartlily  rubbish  into  our 
hearts,  and  thus  dull  desires  that  can  be  satisfied  only 
with  Him  ?  These  are  not  questions  to  which  any  one 
has  a  right  to  expect  an  answer  from  another;  they 
are  not  questions  that  any  Christian  man  can  safely 
shirk  answering  to  himself  and  to  God.  The  measure 
of  our  seeking  is  actually  settled  by  the  measure  of  our 
desire. 

Then  effort,  of  course,  follows  desire  as  surely  as  the 
shadow  comes  after  the  substance,  because  the  only 
purpose  of  our  desires,  in  the  constitution  of  our 
nature,  is  to  supply  the  driving  power  for  effort.  They 
are  the  steam  in  the  boiler  intended  to  whirl  round  the 
wheels.  And  so  for  a  man  to  desire  a  thing  that  he 
can  do  nothing  whatever  to  bring  about,  is  misery  and 
folly.  But  for  a  man  to  desire,  and  not  to  work 
towards  fulfilling  his  desire,  is  greater  misery  and 
greater  stupidity.  One  cannot  believe  in  the  genuine- 
ness of  those  devout  aspirations  that  one  hears  in 
people's  prayers,  who  get  up  and  wipe  the  dust  off  their 
knees,  and  go  out  into  the  world,  and  do  nothing  to 
bring  about  the  fulfilment  of  their  prayers.  There  is 
a  great  deal  of  that  sort  of  desire  amongst  professing 
Christians  in  all  churches,  conventional  utterances 
which  are  backed  up  and  verified  by  no  corresponding 
conduct.  If  we  are  seeking  after  God,  we  shall  not 
let  all  the  seeking  effervesce  in  pious  aspirations;  it 
will  get  consolidated  into  corresponding  action,  and 
operate  to  keep  thought  and  love  directed  towards 
Him,  even  amidst  the  trivialities,  and  legitimate  duties, 
and  great  things  of  life.    There  will  be  effort  to  bring 


110  HEBREWS  [cH.xi. 

Him  into  connection  with  all  our  work ;  effort  to  keep 
by  Him  as  we  go  about  our  daily  tasks,  if  we  are  truly 
seeking  after  God. 

And  then,  desire  and  effort  being  pre-supposed,  there 
will  come  honest  prayers,  genuine  prayers.  'Seek  ye 
the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found,'  says  the  prophet, 
and  immediately  goes  on  to  exhort  us  to  'call  upon 
Him  while  He  is  near,'  as  one  and  the  chief  way  of 
seeking  Him.  He  is  alwaj'^s  near,  closer  to  us  than 
friends  and  lovers,  closer  to  us  than  our  ej'^es  and  hands, 
near  in  His  Son  and  the  Spirit,  near  to  hear  and  to 
bless,  near  and  desiring  to  be  nearer,  yea  to  be  blended 
with  our  being  and  to  dwell  in  us  and  we  in  Him.  We 
have  not  only  to  desire  His  gift,  and  to  work  towards 
it,  but  to  ask  for  it.  Then,  if  we  exercise  these  three 
activities  of  desire,  effort,  petition,  we  may  truly  say : 
'  When  Thou  saidst,  "  Seek  ye  My  face,"  my  heart  said 
unto  Thee,  "Thy  face.  Lord!  will  I  seek,"'  and  may  go 
on,  as  the  psalmist  did,  to  offer  the  consequent  prayer: 
*  Hide  not  Thy  face  from  me,'  in  full  assurance  that  He 
is  found  by  every  seeking  soul.  So  much  for  the 
seeking. 

IL  Now  a  word  about  the  diligence  in  seeking. 

The  writer  uses  a  very  strong  expression,  one  word  in 
the  original,  which  is  here  adequately  rendered,  'them 
that  diligently  seek  Him.'  Half-hearted  seeking  finds 
nothing.  You  sometimes  say  to  your  children,  when 
you  have  set  them  to  look  for  anything,  and  they 
come  back  and  say  they  have  not  been  able  to  find  it, 
•You  do  not  know  how  to  seek.'  And  that  is  true 
about  a  great  many  of  us.  Half  and  half  desire,  so 
that  one  eye  is  turned  on  earth,  and  the  other  lifted 
up  now  and  then  to  heaven,  does  not  bring  us  much. 
It  will  bring  a  little,  but  not  the  fulness  of  blessing 


V.6]  SEEKING  GOD  111 

%vhich  follows  on  whole-hearted,  continnous,  persever- 
ing seeking.  If  you  hold  a  cup  below  a  tap,  in  an 
unsteady  hand,  sometimes  it  is  under  the  whole  rush 
of  the  water,  and  sometimes  is  on  one  side,  and  it  will 
be  a  long  time  before  you  get  it  filled.  There  will  be 
much  of  the  water  spilled.  God  pours  Himself  upon 
us,  and  we  hold  our  vessels  with  unsteady  hands,  and 
twitch  them  away  sometimes,  and  the  bright  blessing 
falls  on  the  ground  and  cannot  be  gathered  up,  and  our 
cup  is  emptj'',  and  our  lips  parched.  Interrupted  seek- 
ing will  find  little;  perfunctory  seeking  will  find  less. 
Conventional  religion  brings  very  little  blessing,  very 
little  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  God;  and  that 
is  why  so  many  who  call  themselves  Christians,  and  are 
so,  in  a  measure  and  in  a  sense,  know  so  little  of  the 
joy  of  being  found  of  God.  Tliey  have  sought  but  not 
sought  diligently. 

Now  let  us  take  the  rebuke  to  ourselves,  if  we  need 
it,  and  we  all  need  it  more  or  less.  It  is  a  very  thread- 
bare piece  of  Christian  counsel,  to  be  earnest  in  our 
seeking  after  God,  but  it  is  none  the  less  needed 
because  it  is  threadbare,  and  it  would  not  be  thread- 
bare if  it  had  not  been  so  much  needed.  'They  that 
search  diligently' — which  is  the  real  meaning  of  the 
words  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  rendered,  '  they  that 
seek  Me  early' — 'shall  find  Me.' 

III.  So  this  brings  me  to  the  last  thing  here,  the 
Reward er  and  the  reward. 

'He  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek 
Him.'  The  best  reward  of  seeking  is  to  find  the  thing 
that  you  are  looking  for.  So  the  best  reward  that  God, 
the  Rewarder,  gives  is  when  He  gives  Himself.  There 
are  a  great  many  other  good  things  that  come  to  the 
diligently  seeking  Christian  soul,  but  the  best  thing  is 


112  HE13UEWS  [cH.xi. 

that  God  draws  near.  Enoch  sought  God,  came  to 
God,  and  so  ho  -walked  with  God.  The  reward  of  his 
coming  was  continuous,  calm  communion,  which  gave 
him  a  companion  in  solitude,  and  one  to  walk  at  his 
side  all  through  the  darkness  and  the  roughnesses, 
as  well  as  the  joys  and  the  smoothnesses,  of  daily- 
life. 

Ah,  brethren !  there  is  no  reward  comparable  to  the 
felt  presence  in  our  own  quiet  hearts  of  the  God  who 
has  found  us,  and  whom  we  have  found.  And  if  wo 
have  that,  then  He  becomes,  here  and  now,  the 
reward  of  the  diligent  search,  and  the  re^-ard  of  it 
to-day  carries  in  itself  the  assurance  of  the  perfect 
reward  of  the  coming  time.  'He  walked  with  God, 
and  .  .  .  God  took  him.'  That  will  be  true  of  all  of  us. 
There  is  only  one  seeking  in  life  that  is  sure  to  result 
in  the  finding  of  what  we  seek.  All  other  search — the 
quest  after  the  chief  good — if  it  runs  in  any  other 
direction,  is  resultless  and  barren.  But  there  is  one 
course,  and  one  only,  in  which  the  result  is  solid  and 
certain.  '  I  have  never  said  to  any  of  the  seed  of  Jacob, 
seek  ye  My  face  in  vain.'  If  we  seek  He  will  be  found 
of  us,  and  so  be  our  Rewarder  and  our  reward. 


NOAH'S  FAITH  AND  OURS 

•  By  faith  Noah,  being  warned  of  God  of  things  not  seen  as  yet,  moved  with  fear, 
prepared  an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  liouse.' — Heb.  xi.  7. 

The  creed  of  these  Old  Testament  saints  was  a  very 
short  one,  and  very  different  from  ours.  Their  faith 
was  the  very  same.  It  is  the  great  object  of  the  writer 
of  this  Epistle,  in  this  magnificent  catalogue  of  the 
heroes  of  the  faith,  the  muster  roll  of  God's  great  army, 


V.7]         NOAH'S  FAITH  AND  OURS  113 

to  establish  the  principle  that  from  the  beginning  there 
has  only  been  one  kind  of  religion,  only  one  way  to 
God ;  and  that,  however  rudimentary  and  brief  the 
articles  of  belief  in  those  early  days,  the  faculty  by 
which  these  far-away  believers  lay  hold  on  them,  and 
its  practical  issues,  were  identical  in  them  and  in  us, 
And  that  is  a  principle  well  worth  getting  into  our 
minds,  that  the  scope  of  the  creed  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  essence  of  the  faith. 

So  we  may  look  at  this  instance  and  discern  in  it. 
beneath  all  superficial  differences,  the  underlying 
identities,  and  take  this  dim,  half-intelligible  figure  of 
Noah,  as  he  stands  almost  on  the  horizon  of  histor}'-,  as 
being  an  example  for  us,  in  verj^  vivid  fashion,  of  the 
true  object  of  faith,  its  operation  in  a  two-fold  fashion, 
and  its  vindication. 

I.  Look  first  at  Noah's  faith  in  regard  to  its  object. 

If  we  think  of  the  incident  brought  before  us  in 
these  words,  we  shall  see  how  the  confidence  with 
which  Noah  laid  hold  of  a  dim  future,  about  which  he 
knew  nothing,  except  because  God  had  spoken  to  him, 
was,  at  bottom,  identical  with  that  great  attitude  of 
the  soul  which  we  call  faith,  as  it  is  exercised  towards 
Jesus  Christ. 

No  doubt  in  this  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  the  aspect 
of  faith  by  which  it  lays  hold  of  the  future  and  the 
unseen,  is  the  one  on  which  the  writer's  mind  is  mainly 
fixed.  But  notice,  that  whilst  the  near  object,  so  to 
speak,  to  which  Noah  stretched  out  his  hands,  and 
of  which  he  laid  hold,  was  that  coming  catastrophe, 
with  its  certainties  of  destruction  and  of  deliverance ; 
there  was  only  one  reason  why  he  knew  anything 
about  that,  and  there  was  only  one  reason  why  he 
knew   or  believed  anything    about  it,  and  that  was 

H 


114  HEBREWS  [ch.xi, 

because  he  believed  Him  who  had  told  him.  So,  at 
bottom,  God  who  had  revealed  the  unseen  future  to 
him  was  the  object  of  his  faith.  He  trusted  the 
Person,  therefore  he  believed  in  that  Person's  word, 
and  therefore  he  had  the  assured  realisation  of  things 
not  seen  as  yet;  and  the  future,  so  dim  and  uncertain 
to  unaided  eyes,  became  to  him  as  certain  as  the  past, 
and  expectation  as  reliable  as  memory.  His  faith 
grasped  the  invisible  things  to  come,  only  because  it 
grasped  the  Invisible  Person,  who  was,  is,  and  is  to 
come,  and  who  lifted  for  him  the  curtain  and  showed 
him  the  things  that  should  be.  So  is  it  with  our  faith ; 
whether  it  lays  hold  upon  a  past  sacrifice  on  Calvary, 
or  upon  a  present  Christ  dwelling  in  our  hearts,  or 
whether  it  becomes  telescopic,  and  stretches  forward 
into  the  future,  and  brings  the  distant  near,  all  its 
various  aspects  are  but  aspects  of  one  thing,  and  that 
is  personal  trust  in  the  personal  Christ  who  speaks  to 
us.  What  he  says  is  a  matter  of  secondary  importance 
in  this  respect.  The  contents  of  God's  revelation 
vary;  the  act  by  which  man  accepts  them  is  always 
the  same. 

So  the  great  question  for  us  all  is— do  we  trust  God? 
Do  we  believe  Him,  and  therefore  accept  His  words, 
not  only  with  the  assent  of  the  understanding,  w^hich 
of  all  idle  things  is  the  idlest,  but  do  we  believe  Him, 
revealing,  commanding,  promising,  threatening,  with 
the  trust  and  affiance  of  our  whole  hearts  ?  Then,  and 
then  only,  can  we  look  with  quiet  certainty  into  the 
dim  future,  which  else  is  all  full  of  rolling  clouds,  that 
sometimes  shape  themselves  to  our  imaginations  into 
the  likeness  of  stable  things,  but  alas !  change  and 
melt  while  we  gaze.  Only  then  can  we  front  the 
solemn  future,  and  say :  '  I  do  not  expect  only,  I  know 


▼.7]         NOAH'S  FAITH  AND  OURS         115 

what  is  tliero.'  My  brother,  if  our  faith  is  worth  call- 
ing faith  at  all,  it  rests  so  absolutely  and  confidingly 
upon  God,  that  Ills  bare  word  becomes  to  us  the 
infallible  source  of  certitude  with  regard  to  all  the 
shifting  hours  of  time,  and  to  the  steadfast  day  of  an 
eternity,  whose  change  is  blessed  growth  to  an  un- 
reached and  undeclining  noon. 

And  what  was  the  future  that  loomed  before  this 
man?  The  coming  of  a  destruction  as  certain  as  God, 
and  the  coming  of  a  deliverance  as  complete  as  His 
love  could  make  it.  Never  mind  although  Noah's  out- 
look related  but  to  a  temporary  catastrophe,  and  ours 
has  reference  to  an  eternal  condition  of  things.  That 
is  a  difference  of  no  real  moment.  We  have  what 
Noah  had,  a  definite,  divine  utterance,  as  the  source  of 
all  our  knowledge  of  what  is  coming.  Both  are  alike 
in  having  two  sides,  one  dark  and  menacing  with  a 
certain  destruction,  the  other  radiant  and  lustrous  with 
as  certain  a  deliverance.  And  now  the  question  for  each 
of  us  is,  do  I  so  believe  God  that  that  future  is  to  me 
what  it  was  to  this  man — far  more  real  than  these 
fleeing  illusions  that  lie  nearer  me  ? 

When  Noah  walked  the  earth  and  saw  his  con- 
temporaries busy  with  buying  and  selling,  planting 
and  building,  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  how 
fantastic  and  unreal  their  work  must  have  seemed  to 
him,  when  behind  them  he  saw  blazing  a  vision,  which 
he  alone  of  all  that  multitude  believed.  Do  not  let  us 
fancy  that  we  have  faith  if  these  near  trilles  are  to  us 
the  great  realities,  and  the  distance  is  dim,  and  unsub- 
stantial, and  doubtful,  hidden  in  mist  and  forgotten. 
The  years  that  stretched  between  the  divine  utterance 
and  its  fullilment  were  to  this  man  as  nothing,  and  for 
him  the  unseen  was  the  reality,  and  the  seen  was  the 


116  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

shadowy  and  phantasmal.  And  that  is  what  faith 
worth  calling  the  name  will  always  do  for  men.  Ask 
yourselves  the  question  if  your  dim  ajiprehension  of 
that  future,  in  either  of  its  aspects,  is  anything  so  vivid 
as  the  certitude  which  blazed  ever  before  the  eye  of 
this  man.  One  of  our  old  English  writers  says,  '  If  the 
felicities  of  another  world  were  as  closely  apprehended 
as  the  joys  of  this,  it  were  martyrdom  to  live.'  That 
may  be  an  exaggeration,  but  surely,  surely  there  is 
something  wrong  in  men  who  call  themselves  believers 
in  God  and  His  word,  to  whom  the  things  seen  and 
temporal  are  all  or  nearly  all  important,  and  the  trifles 
an  inch  from  their  eyes  are  big  enough  to  shut  out 
heaven  and  all  its  stars. 

II.  Still  further,  notice  Noah's  faith  in  its  practical 
effects. 

If  faith  has  any  reality  in  us  at  all,  it  works.  If  it 
has  no  effect  it  has  no  existence.  The  writer  points 
out  two  operations  of  this  confidence  in  God  which, 
through  belief  in  His  word,  leads  to  a  realisation  of  a 
remote  and  unseen  future.  The  effects  are  two-fold. 
First  on  Noah's  disposition,  faith  produced  appropriate 
emotion,  excited  by  the  belief  in  the  coming  deluge; 
he  was  'moved  with  fear.'  Then,  secondly,  through 
emotion,  faith  influenced  conduct— he  'prepared  an 
ark.'    This  is  the  order  in  which  faith  ever  works. 

If  real  and  strong,  it  will  first  affect  emotion.  By 
•fear'  here  we  are  not  merely  to  understand,  though 
possibly  it  is  not  to  be  excluded,  a  dread  of  personal 
consequences,  but  much  rather  the  sweet  and  lofty 
emotion  which  is  described  in  another  part  of  this 
same  book  by  the  same  word :  '  Let  us  serve  Him  with 
reverence  and  with  godly  fear.'  It  is  the  fear  of  pious 
regard,  of  religious  awe,  of  reverence  which  has  love 


V.7]         NOAH'S  FAITH  AND  OURS         117 

blended  inseparably  with  it,  and  is  not  mcrclj^  a 
tremulous  apiirchcnsion  of  some  mischief  coming  to 
me.  Noah  had  no  need  for  that  self-regarding  'fear,' 
inasmuch  as  one  half  of  his  knowledge  of  the  future 
was  the  knowledge  of  his  own  absolute  safety.  But 
reverence,  the  dread  of  going  against  his  Father's  will, 
lowly  submission,  and  all  analogous  and  kindred 
sentiments,  are  expressed  by  the  word. 

Such  holy  and  blessed  emotion,  which  has  no 
torment,  is  the  sure  result  of  real  faith.  Unless  a  man's 
faith  is  warm  enough  to  melt  his  heart,  it  is  worth 
very  little.  A  faith  unaccompanied  by  emotion  is,  I 
was  going  to  say  worse,  at  any  rate  it  is  quite  as  bad, 
as  a  faith  which  is  all  wasted  in  emotion.  It  is  not  a 
good  thing  when  all  the  steam  roars  out  through  an 
escape  pipe;  it  is  perhaps  a  worse  thing  when  there 
is  no  steam  in  the  boiler  to  escape.  It  is  easy  for 
people  that  have  not  any  religion  to  scoff  at  what  they 
suppose  to  be  the  fanatical  excess  of  emotion  which 
some  forms  of  religious  belief  develop.  I,  for  my  part, 
would  rather  have  the  extremest  emotion  than  a  dead 
cold  orthodoxy,  that  believes  everything  and  feels 
nothing.  There  is  some  hope  in  the  one ;  the  other  is 
only  fit  to  be  buried.  Do  not  be  afraid  of  feeling  which 
is  the  child  of  faith.  Be  very  much  more  afraid  of  a 
religion  that  leaves  your  heart  beating  just  exactly  at 
the  same  rate  that  it  did  before  you  took  the  truth 
into  it.  I  am  very,  very  sure  that  there  is  no  road, 
between  a  man's  faith  and  his  practice,  except  through 
his  heart,  and  that,  as  the  Apostle  has  it  in  a  somewhat 
different  form  of  speech,  meaning,  however,  the  same 
thing  that  I  am  now  insisting  upon,  '  faith  workoth  by 
love.'  Love  is  the  path  through  which  creed  travels 
outward  to  conduct. 


118  ,        HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

So  we  come  to  the  second  and  more  remote  effect  of 
faith.  Emotion  will  lead  to  action.  '  Moved  with  fear 
he  prepared  an  ark.'  If  emotion  be  the  child  of  faith, 
conduct  is  the  child  of  emotion.  Noah's  faith,  then,  led 
him  to  a  line  of  action  that  separated  him  from  the 
men  around  him ;  and  it  led  him  to  a  protracted  labour 
in  preparation  for  a  remote  end,  for  the  coming  of 
which  he  had  no  guarantee  except  what  he  believed  to 
be  God's  word.  Commentators  calculate  that  there 
were  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  between  the  time 
of  the  divine  command  and  the  Flood.  Think  of  how 
this  man,  for  all  that  long  while,  set  himself  to  his 
task,  and  how  many  clever  speeches  would  be  made, 
proving  that  he  was  a  fool,  and  how  many  witty  gibes 
would  come  showering  around  his  head  like  hail.  But 
he  kept  steadily  on,  on  a  line  of  conduct  which  made 
him  singular,  and  which  had  regard  only  to  that  result 
a  hundred  and  twenty  years  off. 

Now,  is  that  what  you  and  I  are  doing?  Does  our 
faith  so  shape  our  lives  that  whatever  we  are  about, 
there  is  still  regard  to  that  far-off  future?  If  you  meet 
a  man  in  the  street,  hurrying  somewhere  to  welcome  a 
friend  expected  to  arrive  from  a  far-off  land,  and  you 
detain  him  in  conversation,  as  you  speak  he  is  im- 
patient, keeps  looking  over  your  shoulder  down  the 
road  to  see  if  there  is  any  sign  of  his  coming.  That  is 
how  we  should  be  acting  here— doing  our  work  and 
sticking  to  our  tasks,  but  ever  letting  expectation  and 
desire  carry  us  onwards  to  that  great  future,  which  has 
already  set  out  from  the  throne  in  Eternity,  and  is 
speeding  towards  us  even  now.  Let  that  future,  dear 
brethren,  stand  so  clear  before  each  of  us,  that  it  shall 
shape  our  whole  work  in  the  present.  We  shall  mould 
all  our  lives  with  reference  to  it,  if  we  are  wise.    For 


V.7]         NOAH'S  FAITH  AND  OURS         119 

what  we  make  our  present,  that  will  our  future  be. 
The  smaller  ends  for  which  men  live,  and  the  nearer 
futures  which  they  struggle  towards,  lose  no  jot  of 
their  worth  by  being  regarded  as  but  means  to  that 
far  greater  end.  Kather,  time  is  only  redeemed  from 
triviality,  Mhen  it  is  seen  to  be  the  preparation  for 
eternity,  and  earth  is  never  so  fair  and  good  as  when 
we  discern  and  use  it  as  the  vestibule  of  heaven. 
Never  mind  being  singular.  He  is  the  wise  man  whoso 
vision  reaches  as  far  as  his  existence,  and  whose  earthly 
life  has  for  the  end  of  its  effort,  to  please  Christ  and 
be  found  in  Him. 

III.  And  so,  lastly,  let  me  point  to  Noah's  faith,  in 
regard  to  its  vindication. 

'  He  condemned  the  world.'  *  The  world '  thought 
him  wasting  life  foolishly.  No  doubt  there  were 
plenty  of  witty  and  wise  things  said  about  him. 
'  Prudent,  far-sighted,  practical  men  '  would  say,  '  How 
fanatical!  What  a  misuse  of  energies  and  oppor- 
tunities'; and  so  forth.  And  then,  one  morning,  the 
rain  began,  and  continued,  and  for  forty  days  it 
did  not  stop,  and  they  began  to  think  that  perhaps, 
after  all,  there  was  some  method  in  his  madness. 
Noah  got  into  his  ark,  and  still  it  rained,  and  I  wonder 
what  the  wits  and  '  practical  men,'  that  had  treated  the 
whole  thing  as  moonshine  and  folly,  thought  about  it 
all  then,  with  the  water  up  to  their  knees.  How  their 
gibes  and  jests  would  die  in  their  throats  when  it 
reached  their  lips ! 

And  so,  my  dear  friends,  the  faith  of  the  poor,  ignor- 
ant old  woman  that  up  in  her  garret  lives  to  serve  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  win  an  eternal  crown,  will  get  its  vindi- 
cation some  day,  and  it  will  be  found  out  then  which 
was  the  'practical'  man  and  the  wise  man,  and  all  the 


120  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

witty  speeches  and  smart  sayings  will  seem  very  fool- 
ish even  to  their  authors,  when  the  li^^ht  of  that  future 
shines  on  them.  And  the  old  word  will  come  true 
once  more,  that  the  man  who  lives  for  the  present,  and 
for  anything  bounded  by  Time,  will  have  to  '  leave  it  in 
the  midst  of  his  days,'  and  '  at  his  latter  end  shall  be  a 
fool,'  whilst  the  'foolish'  man  who  lived  for  the  future, 
when  the  future  has  come  to  the  present,  and  the 
present  has  dwindled  away  into  the  past,  and  sunk 
beneath  the  horizon,  shall  be  proved  to  be  wise,  and 
shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  as 
the  stars  for  ever  and  ever. 


THE  CITY  AND  THE  TENT 

'Dwelling  in  tabernacles  .  .  .  for  he  looked  for  a  city.'— Heb.  xi.  9, 10. 

The  purpose  of  the  great  muster-roll  of  the  ancient 
heroes  of  Judaism  in  this  chapter  is  mainly  to  establish 
the  fact  that  there  has  never  been  but  one  way  to  God. 
However  diverse  the  degrees  of  knowledge  and  the 
externals,  the  essence  of  religion  has  always  been  the 
same.  So  the  writer  of  this  Epistle,  to  the  great 
astonishment,  no  doubt,  of  some  of  the  Hebrews  to 
whom  it  was  addressed,  puts  out  his  hand,  and  claims, 
as  Christians  before  Christ,  all  the  worthies  of  whom 
they  were  nationally  so  proud.  He  is  speaking  here 
about  the  three  patriarchs.  Whether  he  conceives 
them  to  have  all  lived  on  the  earth  at  one  time  or  no, 
does  not  trouble  us  at  all.  *  By  faith,'  says  he, '  Abraham 
sojourned  in  the  land  of  promise  as  in  a  strange 
country,  dwelling  in  tabernacles  with  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
the  heirs  with  him  of  the  same  promise,'  because,  'he 
looked  for  the  city  which  hath  the  foundations,  whose 


vs.  9, 10]    THE  CITY  AND  THE  TENT        121 

builder' — or  rather  Architect — 'and  maker' — or  rather 
Builder— 'is  God: 

Now,  of  course,  the  writer  gives  a  considerable  ex- 
tension of  the  meaning  to  the  word  *  faith ' ;  and  in  his 
use  one  aspect  of  it  is  prominent,  though  by  no  means 
exchisively  so — viz.,  the  aspect  which  looks  to  the 
unseen  and  the  future,  rather  than  that  which  grasps 
the  personal  Christ.  But  this  is  no  essential  difference 
from  the  ordinary  New  Testament  usage;  it  is  only  a 
variation  in  point  of  view,  and  in  the  prominence  given 
to  an  element  always  present  in  faith.  What  he  says 
here,  then,  is  substantially  this — that  in  these  patri- 
archal lives  we  get  a  picturesque  embodiment  of  the 
essential  substance  of  all  true  Christian  living,  and 
that  mainly  in  regard  of  two  points,  the  great  object 
which  should  fill  mind  and  heart,  and  the  consequent 
detachment  from  transitory  things  which  should  be 
cultivated.  'He  looked  for  a  city,' and  so  he  was  con- 
tented to  dwell  in  a  movable  tent.  That  is  an  emblem 
containing  the  essence  of  what  our  lives  ought  to  be, 
if  we  are  truly  to  be  Christian.  Let  us,  then,  deal  with 
these  two  inseparable  and  indispensable  characteristics 
of  the  life  of  faith. 

I.  Faith  will  behold  the  Unseen  City,  and  the  vision 
will  steadfastly  fill  mind  and  heart. 

As  I  have  remarked,  the  conception  of  faith  presented 
in  the  Epistle  is  slightly  different  from  that  found  in 
other  parts  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  but  slightly 
different,  for,  whether  we  say  that  the  object  of  our 
faith  is  the  Christ,  'Whom  having  not  seen  we  love; 
in  whom,  though  now  we  see  Him  not,  yet  believing  we 
rejoice,'  or  whether  we  say  that  it  is  the  whole  realm 
and  order  of  things  beyond  the  grave  and  above  the 
skies  where  He  is  and  which  He  has  made  our  native 


122  HEBREWS  [ch.xi. 

land,  makes  in  reality  very  little  difference.  We  come 
at  last  to  the  thought  of  personal  reliance  on  Tlim  by 
whose  word  and  by  whose  resurrection  and  ascension 
only  we  apprehend,  and  by  whose  grace  and  power 
and  love  only  we  shall  ever  possess  that  unseen 
futurity.  So  we  may  fairly  say  that  whilst,  no  doubt, 
it  is  true  that  the  living  Christ  Himself— and  no  heaven 
apart  from  Him,  nor  any  future  apart  from  Him,  nor 
any  thing  of  His,  apart  from  Him,  though  it  be  a  cross, 
but  the  living  Christ  Himself  is  the  true  object  of  faith, 
yet  that  conception  of  its  object  includes  the  view  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  the  'city  which  has 
the  foundations,'  should,  because  it  is  all  clustered 
round  Him  who  is  its  King,  be  the  object  that  fills  our 
minds  and  hearts. 

I  am  not  going  to  discuss  the  details  of  what  this 
writer  supposes  to  have  been  the  animating  principle 
and  aim  of  that  ancient  patriarch's  life.  It  matters 
nothing  at  all  for  the  power  of  his  example  whether  we 
suppose  that  Abraham  looked  forward  to  the  realisation 
of  this  unseen  ideal  city  in  this  life  or  no,  for  the  effect 
of  it  upon  him  would  be  exactly  the  same  whichever 
of  the  two  alternatives  may  have  been  the  case.  It 
matters  nothing  as  to  whether  Abraham  believed  in 
the  realisation  in  that  land  over  which  he  wandered,  of 
the  perfect  order  of  things,  or  whether  he  had  caught 
some  glimpse,  which  is  very  unlikely,  of  it  as  reserved 
for  a  future  beyond  the  grave.  '  In  either  case,  he  lived 
for  and  by  an  unseen  and  future  condition  of  things. 
It  is  beautiful  to  notice  how  the  writer  here,  in  his 
picturesque  and  simple  words,  puts  many  blessed  ideas 
as  to  that  future.  AVe  may,  perhaps,  make  these  a  little 
more  clear,  but  I  am  afraid  we  shall  make  them  much 
more  weak,  by  taking  them  out  of  the  metaphorical  form. 


vs.  9, 10]    THE  CITY  AND  THE  TENT        123 

♦  The  City  '—then  there  is  only  one.  '  The  CUu  '-then 
the  object  of  our  hope,  ought  to  be,  and  is,  if  we  under- 
stand it  aright,  a  perfect  society,  in  which  the  'so- 
journers and  pilgrims,'  like  the  patriarch,  and  his  liUlo 
band  of  children  and  attendants,  who  wandered  lonely 
up  and  down  the  world,  will  all  be  gathered  together 
at  last ;  and,  instead  of  the  solitude  of  the  march,  and 
the  undefended  weakness  of  the  frail  encampment, 
there  will  be  the  conjoined  gladness  and  security  of  an 
innumerable  multitude.  'The  City'  is  the  perfection 
of  society,  and  all  of  us  who  live  in  the  world,  alone 
after  all  communion,  and  separated  from  each  other 
by  the  awful  mystery  of  personal  being,  and  by  many 
another  film  beside,  may  hope  to  understand,  as  we 
never  shall  do  here,  what  the  meaning  of  the  little  word 
'  together '  is  when  we  get  there.   '  He  looked  for  the  city.' 

'The  city  which  hath  the  foundations '—then  the 
object  of  faith  is  a  stable  thing,  which  knows  no  fluc- 
tuations, feels  no  changes,  fears  no  assault,  can  never 
be  subjected  to  violence,  nor  ever  crumple  into  dust. 
•  The  city  which  hath  the  foundations  '—here  and  now 
we  have  to  build,  if  we  build  at  all,  more  or  less  like 
the  foolish  man  in  the  Master's  parable,  upon  sand. 
It  is  the  condition  of  our  earthly  life.  We  have  to 
accept,  and  to  make  the  best  of  it.  But,  oh!  those 
who  have  learned  most  the  agony  of  change  and  the 
misery  of  uncertainty  are  those  who  have  been  best 
disciplined  to  grasp  at  and  lay  up  in  their  hearts  the 
large  consolation  and  encouragement  hived  in  that 
designation, '  the  city  which  hath  the  foundations.' 

The  city,  'whose  Architect'— ior  the  word  rendered 
•Builder'  should  be  so  translated— 'is  God.'  It  is  the 
accomplishment  of  His  plan,  which,  in  modern  language, 
is  called  the  realisation  of  His  ideal.    I  like  the  old- 


124  HEBREWS  [c?h.xi. 

fashioned  Biblical  language  better — *  the  city  whose 
Architect  is  God.'  He  planned,  and,  of  course,  there 
follows  upon  tliat' whose  Maker  or  actual  Builder  is' 
— the  same  as  the  Planner.  Architects  put  their  draw- 
ings into  the  hands  of  rude  workmen,  and  no  completed 
work  of  man's  hands  corresponds  to  the  fair  vision 
that  dawned  on  its  designer  when  it  took  definite  shape 
in  His  mind. 

That  is  another  of  the  laws  of  our  earthly  life  which 
we  have  to  make  the  best  of — that  we  design  grand 
buildings  when  we  begin,  and,  when  we  have  finished 
our  lives,  and  look  back  upon  what^we  have  built,  it  is 
a  mean  and  incomplete  structure  at  the  best.  But 
God's  working  drawings  get  built;  His  plans  are  all 
wrought  out  in  an  adequate  material;  and  everything 
,that  was  in  the  divine  mind  once  exists  in  outward 
fact  in  that  perfect  future. 

So,  inasmuch  as  the  city  is  a  state  of  perfect  society, 
of  stability,  is  planned  by  God,  and  brought  about  by 
Him  at  last,  it  is  to  be  possessed  by  us  on  condition  of 
fellowship  with  Him.  Does  it  not  seem  to  you  to  be 
infinitely  unimportant  whether  this  old  patriarch 
thought  that  what  he  was  looking  for  was  to  be  builded 
upon  the  hills  and  plains  of  Canaan  or  not  ?  That  he 
had  the  vision  is  the  thing.  Where  it  was  to  be  accom- 
plished was  of  small  moment.  We  do  not  know  where 
the  vision  is  to  be  accomplished  any  more  than 
Abraham  did.  We  do  not  know  whether  here,  on  this 
old  earth,  renovated  by  some  cosmic  change,  or  whether 
in  some  region  in  space,  though  beyond  the  stars, 
perfected  spirits  shall  dwell,  and  it  does  not  matter. 
That  we  should  have  the  vision  is  the  main  thing.  The 
where,  the  when,  the  how  of  its  fulfilment  are  of 
no  manner  of  practical  importance,  and  people  who 


V8.9,10]    THE  CITY  AND  THE  TENT         125 

busy  themselves  about  such  questions,  and  think  that 
therefore  they  arc  cultivating  the  spirit  that  my  text 
suggests,  make  a  woful  mistake. 

But  let  me  press  on  you,  dear  brethren,  this  one 
simple  thought,  that  the  average  type  of  Christian  life 
and  experience  to-day  is  wofully  lacking  in  that  clear 
vision  of  the  future.  Partly  it  comes,  I  suppose,  from 
certain  peculiarities  in  the  trend  of  thought  and  way  of 
looking  at  things  that  are  fashionable  in  this  genera- 
tion. We  hear  so  much  about  Christianity  as  a  social 
system,  and  about  what  it  is  going  to  do  in  this  world, 
which  perhaps  it  was  necessary  should  be  stated  very  em- 
phatically, in  order  to  counterpoise  the  too  great  silence 
upon  such  subjects  in  past  times,  that  preaching  about 
the  future  life  strikes  a  hearer  as  unfamiliar,  and  prob- 
ably some  of  my  audience  have  been  feeling  as  if  I  were 
carrying  them  into  misty  regions  far  away  from,  and 
little  related  to,  the  realities  of  life.  But,  dear  brethren, 
from  my  heart  I  believe  that  one  very  operative  cause 
of  the  undeniable  feebleness  of  Christian  life,  which  is 
so  largely  manifested  round  us — and  it  is  for  each  of 
us  to  say  whether  we  participate  in  it — is  duo  to  this, 
that,  somehow  or  other,  there  has  come  in  the  mind  of 
great  masses  of  Christian  people  a  fading  away  of  that 
blessed  vision  of  the  city,  for  which  we  ought  to  live. 
You  scarcely  hear  sermons  nowadays  about  the 
blessedness  of  a  future  life.  What  you  hear  about  it 
is,  how  well  for  this  life  it  is  to  be  a  Christian  man. 

No  doubt  godliness  'hath  promise  of  the  life  that 
now  is,'  and  that  side  of  the  gospel  cannot  be  too 
emphatically  set  forth.  But  it  may  be  disproportion- 
ately presented,  as  I  venture  to  think  that,  on  the 
whole,  it  is  being  presented  now.  Therefore  there  is 
the  more  need  for  consciously  endeavouring  to  culti- 


126  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

vate  tho  habit  of  looking  beyond  the  mists  of  the 
present  to  the  j^lcaining  battlements  and  spires  of  tho 
city.  Let  us  polish  the  glasses  of  our  telescopes,  and 
use  them  not  only  for  distances  on  earth's  low  levels, 
but  to  bring  the  stars  nearer.  So  shall  we  realise 
more  of  the  present  good  and  power  of  faith,  when  it  is 
allowed  its  widest  and  noblest  range. 

II.  Faith  consequently  leads  to  willing  detachment 
from  the  present  order  of  offerings. 

'He  dwelt  in  tabernacles,'  that  is,  he  lived  a  nomad 
life  in  his  tents.  He  and  his  son  and  grandson— three 
generations  of  long  livers — proved  the  depth,  solidity, 
and  practical  power  of  their  faith  in  the  promise  of  the 
city  by  the  remarkable  persistence  of  their  refusal  to 
be  absorbed  in  the  settled  population  of  the  land. 
Recent  discoveries  have  shown  us,  and  discoveries  still 
to  be  made,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  show  still  more,  what 
a  highly  organised  and  developed  civilisation  prevailed 
in  Canaan  when  these  wanderers  from  the  East  came 
into  it,  with  their  black  camels'-hair  tents.  They  were 
almost  as  much  out  of  place,  and  as  noticeably  unique, 
by  such  a  life  in  Canaan  then,  as  gypsies  are  in  England, 
and  the  reason  why  they  would  not  go  into  Hebron,  or 
any  other  of  the  populous  cities  which  were  closely 
studded  in  the  land,  was  that  '  they  looked  for  the  City.' 
It  was  better  for  them  to  dwell  in  tents  than  in  houses. 

The  clear  vision  of  that  great  future  impresses  on  us 
the  transiency  of  the  present.  We  shall  know  that 
what  we  live  in  is  but  as  a  tent  that  is  soon  to  be 
struck,  even  while  some  of  our  fellow-lodgers  may 
fancy  it  to  be  a  house  that  will  last  for  ever. 

The  illusion  of  the  permanence  of  this  fleeting  show 
creeps  over  us  all,  in  spite  of  our  better  knowledge,  and 
has  to  be  fought  against.    The  world,  though  it  seems 


vs.  9, 10]    THE  CITY  AND  THE  TENT         127 

to  be  at  rest,  is  going  faster  than  any  of  the  objects  in 
it  which  are  known  to  be  in  motion.  We  are  deceived 
by  the  universality  of  the  movement  of  which  all 
things  partake,  and  to  us  it  seems  rest.  If  there 
comes  friction,  and  now  and  then  a  collision,  we  find 
out  how  fast  we  are  going.  And  then  there  come 
misery,  and  melancholy,  and  lamentations  about  the 
brevity  of  life,  and  the  awfulness  of  change,  and  all 
these  other  commonplaces  that  are  the  stock-in-trade 
of  poetasters,  but  which  cut  with  such  surprise  and 
agony  into  our  own  hearts  when  we  experience 
them. 

But,  brethren,  to  be  convinced  of  the  transiency  of 
life,  by  reason  of  the  clearness  of  the  vision  of  the 
permanence  of  the  heavens,  is  blessedness  and  not 
misery,  and  is  the  only  way  by  which  a  man  can  bear 
to  say  to  himself,  '  My  daj^s  are  as  a  hand-breadth,'  and 
not  fling  down  his  tools  and  fall  into  sadness,  from 
feeling  that  life  is  as  futile  as  frail.  To  recognise  that 
nothing  continues  in  one  stay,  and  to  see  nothing  else 
that  is  permanent,  is  the  greatest  misery  that  is  laid 
upon  man.  But  to  feel,  'Thou  art  from  everlasting 
to  everlasting,  and  Thy  kingdom  endureth  through  all 
generations  and  I  belong  to  it,'  makes  us  regard  with 
equanimit}^,  and  sometimes  with  solemn  satisfaction, 
the  passing  away  of  all  the  transient,  '  that  the  things 
which  cannot  be  shaken  may  remain.'  '  He  looked  for 
a  city';  so,  'he  dwelt  in  tents.' 

There  is  another  side  to  that  thought.  The  clear 
vision  of  that  permanent  future  will  detach  us  from  the 
perishable  present. 

Now  many  difficult  questions  arise  as  to  how  far 
Christians  should  hold  aloof  from  the  order  of  things 
in  which  they  dwell:  and  to  a  very  large  extent  the 


128  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

application  of  the  principle  in  detail  must  be  left  to 
eacli  man  for  himself,  in  the  presence  of  God.  But  this 
I  am  quite  sure  of,  that  in  this  generation  the  average 
Christian  has  a  great  deal  more  need  to  be  warned 
against  too  great  intermingling  with  than  against  too 
great  separation  from  the  present  world.  Abraham 
sets  us  an  example  beautifully  comprehensive.  He 
held  cordial  relations  with  the  ijcox^le  amongst  whom 
he  dwelt.  He  was  honoured  by  them  as  a  prince ;  he 
was  recognised  by  them  as  a  servant  of  God.  They 
knew  his  bravery.  He  did  not  scruple  to  draw  the 
sword,  and  to  fight  in  defence,  not  only  of  his  kinsmen 
but  of  his  heathen  neighbours  in  Sodom.  And  yet 
nothing  would  induce  him  to  come  down  from  his  tent, 
beneath  the  terebinth  tree  of  Mamre,  in  the  uplands. 
Everybody  knew  that  his  name  was  Abraham  the 
Hebrew — the  man  from  the  other  side.  He  carried  out 
that  name  in  his  life. 

Now,  I  am  not  going  to  lay  down  hard  and  fast  rules 
— conventional  regulations  are  the  ruin  of  principles. 
But  let  us  ask  ourselves,  '  Would  anybody  call  me  "  the 
man  from  the  other  side,"  the  man  who  belongs  to 
another  set  of  things  altogether  than  this?'  We  have 
to  work  in  the  world ;  to  trade  in  the  world ;  to  try  to 
influence  the  world ;  to  draw  many  of  our  enjoyments 
from  it,  in  common  with  those  who  have  no  other  enjoy- 
ments than  those  drawn  from  it.  Of  course,  there  is  a 
great  tract  of  ground  common  to  the  men  of  faith  and 
the  men  of  sense,  and  I  am  not  urging  false  aloofness 
from  any  occupation,  interest,  duty,  or  enjoj^ment.  But 
what  I  say  is  that,  if  we  have  the  vision  of  the  city 
clear  before  us,  there  will  be  no  need  to  tell  us  not  to 
make  our  home  in  Hebron  or  in  Sodom. 

Lot  went  down  there  when  he  had  his  choice — and  he 


vs. 9, 10]  THE  ATTxVCHMENTS  OF  FAITH  129 

got  what  he  wanted,  pasturage  for  his  cattle.  But  ho 
also  got  what  he  did  not  want,  destruction,  and  he  lost 
what  he  did  not  care  to  keep,  his  share  in  the  city. 
Abraham  stayed  on  the  heights,  and  up  there  he  kept 
God,  and  a  good  conscience.  Probably  he  did  not 
make  so  much  monej'^  as  Lot  did.  Very  likely  Lot's 
flocks  and  herds  were  larger  than  his  uncle's.  But  the 
one  man  from  his  height,  through  the  clear  air,  could 
see  far  away  the  sparkling  of  the  turrets  of  the  city; 
and  the  other,  down  in  the  hot,  steaming  plains  of 
Sodom,  could  see  nothing  but  Sodom  and  the  moun- 
tains behind  it.  Better  to  live  on  the  heights  with 
Abraham  and  God  than  down  below  with  Lot,  and 
wealth,  and  subterranean  brimstone,  and  naphtha  fires 
ready  to  burst  forth.  '  He  looked  for  the  city,'  '  ho 
dwelt  in  tents.' 


THE  ATTACHMENTS  AND  DETACHMENTS 
OF  FAITH 

'These  all  died  in  faith,  not  having  received  the  promises,  but  having  eeen 
them  and  greeted  them  from  afar,  and  having  confessed  that  they  were  strangers 
and  pilgrims  on  the  earth.'— Heb.  xi.  13  (R.V.). 

The  great  roll-call  of  heroes  of  faith  in  this  grand 
chapter  goes  upon  the  supposition  that  the  living 
spirit  of  religion  was  the  same  in  Old  and  in  New 
Testament  times.  In  both  it  was  faith  which  knit  men 
to  God.  It  has  often  been  alleged  that  that  great 
word /ai7/i  has  a  different  signification  in  this  Epistle 
from  that  which  it  has  in  the  other  New  Testament 
writings.  The  allegation  is  largely  true;  in  so  far  as 
the  things  believed  are  concerned  they  are  extremely 
different ;  but  it  is  not  true  in  so  far  as  the  person  trusted, 
or  in  so  far  as  the  act  of  trusting  are  concerned.    These 

I 


130  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

are  identical.  It  was  no  mere  temporal  and  earthly 
promise  on  which  the  faith  of  these  patriarchs  was 
builded.  They  looked  indeed  for  the  land,  but  in  look- 
ing for  the  land,  they  looked  'for  the  city  wliich  hath 
foundations';  and  their  future  hopes  had  the  same 
dim  haze  of  ignorance,  and  the  same  questions  unre- 
solved about  perspective  and  relative  distances  which 
our  future  hopes  have;  and  their  faith,  whatever  were 
its  contents,  was  fundamentally  the  same  out  of  a  soul 
casting  itself  upon  God,  which  is  the  essence  of  our 
faith  in  the  Divine  Son  in  whom  God  is  made  manifest. 
So  with  surface  difference  there  is  a  deep-lying  abso- 
lute oneness  in  the  faith  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
ours,  in  essential  nature,  in  the  Object  which  they 
grasp,  and  in  their  practical  effects  upon  life. 

Therefore,  these  words  of  my  text,  describing  what 
faith  did  for  the  world's  grey  forefathers,  have  a  more 
immediate  bearing  upon  us  than  at  first  sight  may 
appear,  and  may  suggest  for  us  some  thoughts  about 
the  proper,  practical  issues  of  Christian  faith  in  our 
daily  lives. 

I.  I  take  two  or  three  of  the  points  which  come  most 
plainly  out  from  the  words  before  us,  and  ask  you  to 
notice,  in  the  first  place,  how  faith  fills  eye  and  heart 
with  the  future. 

You  will  have  observed  that  I  have  read  my  text 
somewhat  differently  from  the  form  which  it  assumes 
in  our  Authorised  Version.  Observe  that  the  words 
'And  were  persuaded  of  them,'  in  our  Old  Version 
are  a  gloss, — no  part  of  the  original  text.  Observe, 
further,  that  the  adverb  '  afar  off '  is  intended  to  ai)ply 
to  both  the  clauses :  '  Having  seen  them,'  and  '  em- 
braced them.'  And  that,  consequently,  'embraced' 
must  necessarily  be  an  inadequate  representation  of 


v.U]   THE  ATTACHMENTS  OF  FAITH     181 

the  writer's  idea;  for  you  cannot  embrace  a  thing  that 
is  'afar  off';  and  to  'embrace  the  promises'  was  the 
very  thing  that  tlicsc  men  did  not  do.  The  meaning  of 
the  word  is  here  not  embraced,  but  saluted  or  greeted; 
and  the  figure  that  lies  in  it  is  a  very  beautiful  one. 
As  some  traveller  topping  the  water-shed  may  see  far 
off  the  white  porch  of  his  homo,  and  wave  a  greeting 
to  it,  though  it  be  distant,  while  his  heart  goes  out 
over  all  the  intervening,  weary  leagues;  or  as  some 
homeward-bound  crew  catch,  away  yonder  on  the 
horizon,  the  tremulous  low  line  that  is  home,  and 
welcome  it  with  a  shout  of  joy,  though  many  a  billow 
dash  and  break  between  them  and  it,  these  men  looked 
across  the  weary  waste,  and  saw  far  away;  and  as 
they  saw  their  hearts  went  out  towards  the  things 
that  were  promised,  because  they  'judged  Him  faithful 
that  had  promised.'  And  that  is  the  attitude  and 
the  act  which  all  true  faith  in  God  ought  to  operate 
in  us. 

So,  then,  here  are  two  things  to  think  about  for 
a  moment.  One,  Faith's  vision;  the  other.  Faith's 
greeting. 

People  say,  '  Seeing  is  believing.'  I  should  be  dis- 
posed to  turn  the  aphorism  right  round,  and  to  say, 
'Believing  is  seeing.'  For  there  is  a  clearer  insight, 
and  a  more  immediate,  direct  contact  with  the  thing 
beheld,  and  a  deeper  certitude  in  the  vision  of  faith 
than  in  the  poor,  purblind  sight  of  sense,  all  full  of 
illusions,  and  which  has  no  real  possession  in  it  of  the 
things  which  it  beholds.  The  sight  that  faith  gives  is 
solid,  substantial,  clear,  certain.  If  I  might  so  say,  the 
true  exercise  of  faith  is  to  stereoscope  the  dim  ghost- 
like realities  of  the  future,  and  to  make  them  stand 
out  solid  in  relief  there  before  us.    And  he  who,  clasp- 


132  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

ing  the  hand,  and  if  I  might  so  say,  looking  through 
the  eyes,  of  God,  sees  the  future,  in  humble  acceptance 
of  His  great  words  of  promise,  in  some  measure  as 
God  sees  it— has  a  source  of  knowledge,  clear,  im- 
mediate, certain,  which  sense  with  its  lies  and  imper- 
fections, is  altogether  inadequate  even  to  symbolise. 
The  vision  of  Faith  is  far  deeper,  far  more  real,  far 
more  correspondent  to  the  realities,  and  far  more 
satisfying  to  the  eye  that  gazes,  than  is  any  of  the 
sight  of  sense.  Do  not  you  be  deceived  or  seduced  by 
talk  that  assumes  to  be  profound  and  philosophical, 
into  believing  that  when  you  venture  your  all  upon 
God's  word,  and  doing  so  say,  *I  know,  and  behold 
mine  inheritance,'  you  are  saying  more  than  calm 
reason  and  common-sense  teaches  us.  TVe  have  the 
thing,  and  we  see  it,  if  we  believe  Him  that  in  His 
word  shows  it  to  us. 

Well,  then,  still  further,  there  is  suggested  that  this 
vision  of  faith,  with  all  its  blessed  clearness  and  certi- 
tude and  sufficiency,  is  not  a  direct  perception  of  the 
things  promised,  but  only  a  sight  of  them  in  the  pro- 
mise. And  does  that  make  it  less  blessed?  Does  the 
astronomer,  who  sits  in  his  chamber,  and  when  he 
would  most  carefully  observe  the  heavens,  looks  down- 
wards on  to  the  mirror  of  the  reflecting  telescope  that 
he  uses,  feel  that  he  sees  the  starry  lights  less  clearly 
and  less  really  than  when  he  gazes  up  into  the  abyss 
itself  and  sees  them  there?  Is  not  the  reflection  a 
better  and  a  more  accurate  source  of  knowledge  for 
him  than  even  the  direct  observation  of  the  sky  would 
be?  And  so,  if  we  look  down  into  the  promise,  we 
shall  see,  gleaming  and  glittering  there,  the  starry 
points  which  are  the  true  images  adapted  to  our 
present  sense  and  power  of  reception  of  the    great 


T.  13]    THE  ATTACHMENTS  OF  FAITH    133 

invisible  liglits  above.  God  be  thanked  that  faith 
looks  to  the  promises  and  not  to  the  realities,  else  it 
were  no  more  faith,  and  would  lose  some  of  its 
blessedness. 

And  then,  still  further,  let  me  remind  you  that  this 
vision  of  faith  varies  in  the  measure  of  our  faith.  It 
is  not  always  the  same.  Refraction  brings  up  some- 
times, above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  a  spectral  likeness 
of  the  opposite  shore,  and  men  stand  now  and  then 
upon  our  southern  coasts,  and  for  an  hour  or  two,  in 
some  conditions  of  the  atmosphere,  they  see  the  low 
sandhills  of  the  French  or  the  Belgian  coast,  as  if  they 
were  at  arm's  length.  So  faith,  refracting  the  rays  of 
liglit  that  strike  from  the  Throne  of  God,  brings  up  the 
image,  and  when  it  is  strong  the  image  is  clear,  and 
when  it  flags  the  image  '  fades  away  into  the  light  of 
common  day ' ;  and  where  there  glowed  the  fair  ovitlines 
of  the  far-off  land,  there  is  nothing  but  a  weary  wash 
of  waters  and  a  solitary  stretch  of  sea. 

My  brother !  do  you  see  to  it  that  this  vision  of  faith 
is  cultivated  by  you.  It  is  hard  to  do.  The  pressure 
of  the  present  is  terribly  strong ;  the  chains  of  sense 
that  hold  us  are  very  adamantine  and  thick;  but  still 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  cultivate  the  faculty  of  behold- 
ing, and  to  train  the  eye  to  look  into  that  telescope 
that  pries  into  distant  worlds,  and  brings  eternal 
glories  near.  No  pair  of  eyes  can  look  the  one  at  a 
thing  near,  and  the  other  at  a  thing  afar  off;  at  least 
if  the}'^  do  the  man  squints.  And  no  soul  can  look  so 
as  to  behold  the  unseen  glories  if  its  eye  be  turned  to 
all  these  vanities  here.  Do  you  choose  whether  you 
shall,  like  John  Bunyan's  man  with  the  muckrake, 
have  your  eyes  fixed  upon  the  straws  and  01th  at  your 
feet,  or  whether  you  will   look  upwards  and  see  the 


134  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

crown  that  is  glittering  there  just  above  your  head, 
and  ready  to  drop  upon  it.  '  These  all  in  faith  saw  the 
promises.' 

Yes !  And  when  they  saw  them  they  greeted  them. 
Their  hands  and  their  hearts  went  out,  and  a  glad 
shout  came  to  their  lips  as  they  beheld  the  fair  vision 
of  all  the  wonder  that  should  be.  And  so  faith  has  in 
it,  in  proportion  to  its  depth  and  reality,  this  going  out 
of  the  soul  towards  the  things  discerned.  They  draw 
us  when  we  see  them. 

One  of  our  seventeenth-century  prose  writers  says : — 
*  Were  the  happiness  of  the  next  world  as  closely  ap- 
prehended as  felicities  of  this,  it  were  a  martyrdom  to 
live.'  It  is  true.  If  we  see,  we  cannot  choose  but  love. 
Our  vision  will  break  into  desire,  and  to  behold  is  to 
yearn  after.  Oh,  Christian  men  and  women !  do  we 
know  anything  of  that  going  out  of  the  soul,  in  a  calm 
transport  of  deliberate  preference  to  the  things  that 
are  unseen  and  eternal.  It  is  a  sharp  test  of  the  reality 
of  our  Christian  profession ;  do  not  shrink  from  apply- 
ing it  to  yourselves. 

II.  And  now  in  the  next  place,  we  see  here  how  faith 
produces  a  sense  of  detachment  from  the  present. 

'  They  confessed  that  they  were  strangers  and  pil- 
grims on  the  earth.'  The  writer  is,  no  doubt,  referring 
to  the  words  of  Abraham  when  he  stood  up  before  the 
Hittites,  and  asked  for  a  bit  of  ground  to  lay  his  Sarah 
in — 'I  am  a  stranger  and  a  sojourner  with  you';  and 
also  to  Jacob's  words  to  Pharaoh,  'The  days  of  the 
years  of  my  pilgrimage  are  an  hundred  and  thirty 
years.'  These  utterances  revealed  the  spirit  in  which 
they  looked  upon  the  settled  order  in  the  midst  of  which 
they  dwelt.  They  felt  that  they  were  not  of  it,  but 
belonged  to  another. 


r.U]   THE  ATTACHMENTS  OF  FAITH    135 

Now  there  are  two  different  kinds  of  consciousness 
that  we  are  strangers  and  sojourners  here.  There  is 
one  that  merely  comes  fi'om  the  consideration  of  the 
natural  transiency  of  all  earthly  things,  and  the  short- 
ness of  human  life.  There  is  another  that  comes  from 
the  consciousness  that  we  belong  to  another  kingdom 
and  another  order.  A  'stranger'  is  a  man  who,  in  a 
given  constitution  of  things,  in  some  country  with  a 
settled  government,  owes  allegiance  to  another  king, 
and  belongs  to  another  polity.  A  'pilgrim'  or  a  'so- 
journer' is  a  man  who  is  only  in  the  place  where  he 
now  is  for  a  little  while.  So  the  one  of  the  two  words 
expresses  the  idea  of  belonging  to  another  state  of 
things,  and  the  other  expresses  the  idea  of  transiency 
in  the  present  condition. 

But  the  true  Christian  consciousness  of  being  'a 
stranger  and  a  sojourner'  comes,  not  from  any  thought 
that  life  is  fleeting  and  ebbing  away,  but  from  the 
better  and  more  blessed  operation  of  the  faith  which 
reveals  the  things  promised,  and  knits  me  so  closely  to 
them  that  I  cannot  but  feel  separated  from  the  things 
that  are  round  about  me.  Men  who  live  in  mountain- 
ous countries,  be  it  Switzerland,  or  the  Highlands,  or 
anywhere  else,  when  they  come  down  into  the  plains, 
pine  and  fade  away  sometimes,  with  the  intensity  of 
the  '  Heimweh,'  the  homesickness  which  seizes  them. 
And  we,  if  we  are  Christians,  and  belong  to  the  other 
order  of  things,  shall  feel  that  this  is  not  our  native 
soil,  nor  here  the  home  in  which  we  would  dwell. 
Abraham  could  not  go  to  live  in  Sodom,  though  Lot- 
went;  and  he  and  his  son  and  grandson  kept  them- 
selves outside  of  the  organisation  of  the  society  in  the 
midst  of  which  they  dwelt,  because  they  were  so  sure 
that   they  belonged  to  another.    Or,  as  the  context 


136  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

puts  it,  thoy  '  dwelt  in  tents  because  tlicy  loolccd  for 
the  City.'  It  is  only  sad,  disheartening,  cutting  the 
nerve  of  much  activity,  destroying  the  intensity  of 
much  joy,  drawing  over  life  the  pall  of  a  deep  sadness 
for  a  man  to  say,  '  Seventy  years  are  a  hand-brcadih. 
I  am  a  stranger  and  a  sojourner.'  But  it  is  an  ally  of 
all  noble,  intense,  happy  living  that  a  man  should  say, 
'My  home  is  with  God.  I  am  a  stranger  and  a  so- 
journer here.'  The  one  conviction  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  even  desperate  absorption  in  present 
things.  'Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die,' 
is  quite  as  legitimate  a  conclusion  from  the  conscious- 
ness of  human  frailty,  as,  '  Let  us  live  for  heaven,  for 
to-morrow  we  die.'  It  all  depends  upon  what  is  the 
source  and  occasion  of  this  consciousness,  whether  it 
shall  make  us  bitter,  and  shall  make  us  cling  to  the 
perishable  thing  all  the  more  because  it  is  going  so 
soon,  or  whether  it  shall  lift  us  up  above  all  these 
transient  treasures  or  sorrows  and  fill  our  hearts  with 
the  glad  conviction,  '  I  am  a  citizen  of  no  mean  city,  and 
therefore  here  I  am  but  a  stranger.' 

My  brother!  does  your  faith  lessen  the  bonds  that 
bind  you  to  earth?  Does  it  detach  you  from  the 
things  that  are  seen  and  temporal,  or  is  your  life 
ordered  upon  the  same  maxims  and  devoted  to  the 
pursuit  of  the  same  objects,  and  gladdened  by  the 
same  transitory  and  partial  successes,  and  embittered 
by  the  same  fleeting  and  light  afflictions  which  rule 
and  sway  the  lives  that  are  rooted  only  in  earth  as 
"'->^e  tempest  sways  the  grass  on  the  sandhills?  If  so, 
what  business  have  we  to  call  ourselves  Christians  ? 
If  so,  how  can  we  say  that  we  live  by  faith  when  we 
are  so  blind,  and  so  incapable  of  seeing  afar  off,  that 
the  smallest  trifle  beside  us  blots  out  from  our  vision, 


V.  13]  THE  ATTACHMENTS  OF  FAITH     137 

as  a  fourponny  ploce  hokl  up  against  your  eyeball 
might  do  the  sun  itself  in  the  heavens  there.  True  faith 
detaches  a  man  from  this  present.  If  your  faith  does 
not  do  that,  look  into  it  and  see  where  the  falsity  of  it  is. 

III.  And,  lastly,  my  text  brings  out  the  thought  of 
how  this  same  faith  triumphs  in  the  article  of  death. 
'  These  all  died  in  faith.' 

That  is  a  very  grand  thought  as  applied  to  those  old 
patriarchs,  that  just  because  all  their  lives  long  God 
had  done  nothing  for  them  of  what  He  had  promised, 
therefore  they  died  believing  that  He  was  going  to  do  it. 
All  their  disappointments  fed  their  faith.  Because  the 
words  en  which  they  had  been  leaning  all  their  lives 
had  not  come  to  a  fulfilment,  therefore  they  must  be 
true.  That  is  a  strange  paradox,  and  yet  it  is  the  one 
which  filled  these  men's  hearts  with  peace,  and  which 
made  the  dying  Jacob  break  in  upon  his  prophetic 
swan-song,  at  the  close,  with  the  verse  which  stands  in 
no  relation  to  what  goes  before  it,  or  what  comes  after 
it.  '  I  have  waited  for  Thy  salvation,  O  Lord.'  '  These 
all  died  in  faith'  just  because  they  had  7iot  'received 
the  promises.' 

So,  dear  brethren,  for  us  the  end  of  life  may  have  a 
faith  nurtured  by  disappointments,  made  more  sure  of 
everything  because  it  has  nothing;  certain  that  He 
calls  into  existence  another  world  to  redress  the  balance 
of  the  old,  because  here  there  has  been  so  much  of 
bitterness  and  weariness  and  woe.  And  our  end  like 
theirs  may  be  an  end  beatified  by  a  clear  vision  of  the 
things  that  'no  man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see';  and  into 
the  darkness  there  may  come  for  us,  as  there  came  of 
old  to  another,  an  open  heaven  and  a  beam  of  God's 
glory  smiting  us  on  the  face  and  changing  it  into  the 
face  of  an  angel.    And  so  there  may  come  for  us  all  in 


138  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

that  article  and  act  of  deatli,  a  tranquil  and  cheerful 
abandonment  of  the  life  which  has  been  futile  and 
frail,  except  when  thought  of  as  the  vestibule  of 
heaven.  Some  men  cling  to  the  vanishing  skirts  of 
this  earthly  life,  and  say,  'I  will  not  let  thee  go.' 
And  others  are  able  to  say,  'Lord  !  I  have  waited  for 
Thy  salvation.'  '  Now  lettest  Thou  Thy  servant  depart 
in  peace.' 

'  These  all  died  in  faith ' ;  and  the  sorrows  and  disap- 
pointments of  the  past  made  the  very  background  on 
which  the  bow  of  promise  spanned  the  sky,  beneath 
which  they  passed  into  the  Promised  Land.  'These 
all  died  in  faith';  with  a  vision  gleaming  upon  the 
inward  sense  which  made  the  solitude  of  death  bliss, 
and  with  a  calm  willingness  '  to  depart,  and  to  be  with 
Christ,  which  is  far  better.' 

Choose  whether  you  will  live  by  sense  and  die  in 
sorrow,  or  whether  you  will  live  by  the  faith  of  the 
Son  of  God,  and  die  to  enter  'the  City  which  hath 
foundations,'  which  He  has  built  for  them  that  love 
Him,  and  which  even  now,  'in  seasons  of  calm 
weather,'  we  can  see  shining  on  the  hill  top  far 
away. 


SEEKING  THE  FATHERLAND 

'  They  that  say  such  things  declare  plainly  that  they  seek  a  country.' 

Heb.  xi.  14, 

What  things  ?  Evidently  those  which  the  writer  has 
just  been  saying  that  the  patriarchs  of  old  'said,'  as 
stated  in  the  j)revious  words — 'They  confessed  that 
they  were  strangers  and  pilgrims  upon  earth.*  The 
writer  has  in  his  mind,  no  doubt,  some  of  the  beautiful 
incidents  of  the  Book  of  Genesis ;  especially,  I  suppose, 


V.  14]    SEEKING  THE  FATHERLAND       139 

that  very  touching  one  where  Abraham  is  standuig  up 
by  the  side  of  his  dead,  in  the  presence  of  the  sons 
of  Heth,  and  bc<:!:s  from  them  for  the  first  time  a  little 
piece  of  land  that  he  could  call  his  own.  He  tells 
them  that  he  is  a  stranger  and  a  sojourner  amongst 
them,  and  wants  'the  field  and  the  cave  that  is  therein' 
in  which  to  bury  his  dead.  Or  he  may.  be  thinking  of 
the  no  less  touching  incident,  when  Jacob,  in  his 
extreme  old  age,  tells  the  King  of  Egypt  that  the  days 
of  the  years  of  his  pilgrimage  have  been  few  and 
evil,  not  having  attained  to  the  years  of  his  father. 

The  writer  points  to  these  declarations,  and  reads 
into  them  what  he  was  entitled  to  read  into  them, 
something  more  than  a  mere  acceptance  of  the 
external  facts  of  the  speakers'  condition,  as  wanderers 
in  the  midst  of  a  civilisation  to  which  they  did  not 
belong.  He  sees  gleaming  through  the  primary  force 
of  the  words  the  further  hope  which  the  patriarchs 
cherished,  though  it  was,  as  it  were,  latent  in  the 
nearer  hope  of  an  earthly  inheritance — viz.,  that  of  the 
city  which  hath  foundations,  and  the  country  which 
they  could  call  their  own. 

Although  the  writer  is  not  adducing  these  patriarchs 
as  being  patterns  for  us,  but  is  only  establishing  his 
great  thesis  that  they  lived  by  faith  in  a  future 
blessing,  as  we  ought  to  do,  still  we  may  take  the 
words  of  my  text,  with  a  permissible  amount  of 
violence,  as  appropriate  to  all  of  us  who  call  ourselves 
Christians.  'They  who  say  such  things  do  hereby 
declare  plainly,'  and  by  their  lives  should  declare 
more  plainly  still,  '  that  they  are  seeking  a  country.' 

I.  Note,  then,  first  of  all,  the  remarkable  representa- 
tion here  given  of  that  future  for  which  Christians 
look,  as  being  their  native  land. 


140  HEBREWS  [ch.xi. 

The  word  of  our  text  is  very  inadequately  rendered 
in  our  Authorised  Version  as  merely  'a  country.' 
Fully  and  etymologically  rendered,  it  would  be  'the 
fatherland.'  Whether  we  choose  to  adopt  that  some- 
what un-English  expression  or  no,  at  all  events,  the 
idea  conveyed  is  that  these  men,  having 'come  out  from 
Mesopotamia,  and  being  wanderers,  in  their  goat's- 
hair  tents,  in  the  midst  of  the  fenced  cities  of  Canann, 
were  thereby  seeking  for  a  land  which  was  their 
native  land,  their  home,  the  place  to  which  they  felt 
that  they  belonged  far  more  truly  than  to  the  land 
from  which  they  came  out,  or  to  the  land  in  which 
they  were  for  the  moment  wandering.  That  is  the 
idea  that  I  would  enforce  as  needful  for  all  true  and 
noble  Christian  living,  the  recognition  that  our  true 
home,  the  country  and  the  order  with  which  we  are 
connected  by  all  our  deepest  and  most  real  affinities, 
the  land  where,  and  where  only,  we  shall  feel  at  rest, 
and  surrounded  by  familiar  things  and  loved  persons, 
is  that  land  which  lies  beyond  the  flood. 

We  do  not  belong,  and  should  feel  that  we  do  not 
Delong,  to  the  place  and  order  where  we  happen  to 
stand  to-day.  This  present  and  the  order  of  things 
here  should  be  for  us  either  like  that  Aram  Naharaim, 
•  the  Syria  between  the  two  rivers,'  the  dust  of  which 
Abraham  had  shaken  from  off  his  feet ;  or  it  should  be 
like  that  rotten  though  splendid  civilisation  into  the 
midst  of  which  He  came,  and  of  which  He  sternly 
refused  to  enrol  Himself  as  a  citizen.  Our  home  is 
where  Jesus  Christ  is,  and  there  is  something  pro- 
foundly wrong  in  us  unless  we  feel  that  that,  and  not 
this,  is  our  native  soil,  and  that  there,  and  not  here,  is 
the  place  to  which  we  belong. 

Our  colonists  on  the  other  side  of  the  world,  though 


V.  11]    SEEKING  THE  FATHERLAND      141 

they  have  never  seen  England,  talk  about  'going 
home.'  And  so  we,  inhabitants  of  this  outlying  colony 
of  the  great  city,  ought  to  look  across  the  flood,  and 
sometimes  catch  a  sight  of  those  bright  realms  beyond, 
and  always  feel  that  they  are  really  our  native  land. 
•  They  that  say  such  things  declare  plainly '  that  they 
are  not  citizens  here,  but  belong  yonder. 

IT.  Then,  mark  again,  the  other  parallel  which  may  bo 
drawn  between  these  men's  attitude  and  ours,  in  that 
their  whole  career  was  a  seeking  the  true  Fatherland. 

Again,  our  translation  is  inadequate  because  it  does 
not  give  the  energetic  force  of  the  word  that  is 
rendered  '  seek.*  It  was  not  a  seeking,  on  the  part  of 
the  patriarchs,  in  the  sense  of  looking  for  an  unseen 
thing,  or  searching  about  to  find  an  undiscovered  one. 
That  was  all  done  for  them  by  God.  They  had  not  to 
seek  in  that  unsatisfactory  and  disturbing  sense,  but 
they  had  to  seek,  in  the  sense  of  projecting  their 
desires  onwards  to  the  blessing  that  God  held  out  in 
His  hand  for  them,  and  letting  their  faith  grasp  the 
promise  and  their  thoughts  expatiate  in  the  future, 
which  was  as  sure  to  them  as  the  present,  because  God 
had  made  it.  The  word  for  seeking  in  the  original 
is  very  emphatic.  It  implies  the  going  out  of  longings 
and  yearnings  and  thoughts  to  something  which  is 
there,  to  be  grasped  and  laid  hold  of.  Thank  God  we 
have  not  to  seek  our  native  soil  as  wanderers  who 
may  perchance  fail  in  our  quest,  and  die  at  last  home- 
less. It  is  brought  to  us,  and  certified  to  us  by  the 
divine  veracity,  sealed  to  us  by  the  divine  faithfulness, 
reserved  for  us  by  the  divine  power,  made  possible  for 
us  by  the  divine  forgiving  mercy.  But  still  we  have 
to  seek,  letting  our  hearts  go  out  towards  that  good 
land,  letting  our  thoughts  play  about  it  and  become 


142  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

familiar  with  it,  letting  our  desires  tend  towards  it, 
and  ever,  in  all  the  dusty  ways  of  daily  life,  and  amidst 
all  the  distractions  of  monotonous  and  recurring 
duties,  keeping  our  heads  above  the  mist  and  looking 
into  the  clear  blue,  where  we  may  see  the  vision  of  the 
certain  future. 

The  management  and  discipline  of  our  thoughts  is 
included  in  that  seeking,  and  I  am  afraid  that  that  is 
a  part  of  Christian  culture  woefully  neglected  by  the 
average  Christian  of  this  day.  If  we  consider  the 
comparative  magnitude  of  the  future  and  the  present, 
and  the  certain  issue  of  the  present  in  the  future,  are 
our  thoughts  of  it  such  as  common-sense  would  make 
them  ?  Is  that  '  land  that  is  very  far  off '  a  frequent 
ordinary  subject  of  contemplation  by  us,  in  the  midst 
of  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  our  daily  life  ?  Or  have  we 
let  the  glasses  of  the  telescope  of  hope  get  all  dimmed 
and  dirty ;  and  when  we  do  polish  them  up,  do  we  use 
them  to  look  at  the  stars  with,  or  at  the  earth  and  its 
beauties?  Whither  do  my  anticipations  of  the  future 
tend  ?  Is  my  hope  shortsighted  or  longsighted  ?  Is  it 
only  able  to  see  the  things  on  this  side  the  river,  or 
can  it  catch  any  of  the  glories  beyond  ?  Our  fault  is 
not  in  not  living  enough  in  the  future,  but  in  the 
selection  of  the  future  in  which  we  live.  '  We  are 
saved  by  hope,'  if  we  rightly  direct  the  hope.  We  are 
ruined  by  hopes  when  they  are  cribbed,  cabined,  and 
confined  to  this  miserable  present.  Brother!  do  you 
seek  your  home  by  the  cultivation  of  the  contemplation 
of  it  and  the  desire  for  it,  and  so  almost  emulate  the 
divine  prerogative  and  call  things  that  are  not  as 
though  they  were  ? 

Oh!  how  different  our  lives  would  be  if  we  walked 
in   the  light  of  that  great  hope,  and   how   different 


V.14]     SEEKING  THE  FATHERLAND       143 

everything  here  would  be  if  we  regarded  all  here  as 
auxiliary  and  subsidiary  to  that. 

Above  all,  if  it  were  true  of  us,  as  it  ought  to  be  iu 
accordance  with  our  profession  of  being  Christians, 
that  we  seek  a  country,  should  we  think  about  death 
as  we  do?  Should  we  drape  it  in  such  ugly  forms? 
Should  wc  shrink  from  it  as  most  of  us,  I  fear,  do  as  a 
dread  and  an  enemy  and  a  disaster?  No  doubt  there 
is,  and  there  always  will  be,  a  natural  shrinking ;  but 
the  man  who  can  saj''  that  to  die  is  to  be  with  Christ, 
and  who  sets  that  thought  ever  before  him,  will  be 
helped  over  the  dark  gulf;  and  the  shrinking  will  be 
turned,  if  not  into  desire  at  least  into  calm  scorn  of 
the  last  enemy,  the  encounter  with  whom  does  not 
diminish  his  longing  to  be  with  his  Lord. 

These  are  heights  of  Christian  feeling  so  far  above 
most  of  us  that  we  are  tempted  to  think  them  unreal 
and  fantastic ;  but  they  are  the  heights  to  which  we 
should  naturally  rise,  if  once  we  realised  the  greatness, 
the  blessedness,  the  certainty  of  that  hidden  hope 
above.  Dear  friends,  if  we  look  onwards  to  our  own 
end,  are  we  only  or  chiefly  conscious  of  a  cold  thrill  of 
recoil  and  repulsion  ?  Let  us  ask  ourselves  if  our  feel- 
ing corresponds  to  our  profession  that  Christ  is  our 
life,  and  that  where  He  is  is  our  heaven  and  our 
hope. 

III.  Lastly,  notice  the  unmistakable  witness  of  pro- 
fession and  life  which  we  are  to  bear. 

'  They  declare  plainly.'  They  make  it  absolutely  and 
unmistakably  manifest,  says  the  writer,  that  they  seek 
a  country.  It  did  not  need  that  Abraham  should  stand 
up  before  the  sons  of  Heth  and  say,  '  I  am  a  pilgrim 
and  a  sojourner  amongst  you.'  They  all  knew  it. 
There  was  his  tent  outside  the  city  walls,  and  a  strange 


144  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

life  that  little  tribe  of  people,  he  and  his  followers, 
lived,  wandering  up  and  down  the  land  and  refusing 
to  settle  themselves  anywhere.  They  lived  a  life 
unlike  that  of  the  people  among  whom  they  dwelt. 
We  know  that  in  these  early  days  there  were  fenced 
cities,  outside  the  walls  of  which  they  dwelt,  and  there 
all  the  evidences  of  a  highly  developed  and  advanced 
civilisation  existing  in  the  land.  These  patriarchs  lived 
like  gypsies  in  the  country,  roaming  everyw^here  but 
rooted  nowhere  ;  and  the  reason  they  so  lived  was  that 
they  '  looked  for  a  city  which  hath  foundations.' 

'  Yes !  the  man,  before  the  eyes  of  whose  faith  there 
is  ever  shining  that  permanent  state  of  blessed  union 
with  Jesus  Christ  and  of  sweet  society  with  all  the 
good,  can  afford  to  recognise  the  things  that  are  seen 
as  transient,  as  they  must  be.  He  will  be  in  no  danger 
of  mistaking  the  fleeting  shows  for  eternal  realities. 
If  we  are  looking  for  the  city  we  shall  dwell  in 
tabernacles ;  and  the  more  our  faith  grasps  the  per- 
manent realities  beyond,  the  more  will  our  experience 
realise  the  transitoriness  of  the  things  here  by  our 
sides. 

The  very  fact  that  men  call  themselves  Christians  is 
a  declaration  that  they  are  seeking  for  a  city.  Do  you 
act  up  to  your  declaration?  Is  your  Christianity  a 
matter  of  lip  or  of  life  ?  Have  you  pitched  your  tents 
outside  the  city  to  confirm  your  declaration  that  you 
do  not  belong  to  this  community?  And  do  you  live  as 
in  it,  but  not  of  it? 

Our  outward  lives  ought  to  make  most  distinctly 
manifest  that  we  are  citizens  of  the  heavens,  and  that 
will  be  made  manifest  by  abstinence  from  a  great  deal. 
There  are  many  things,  right  enough  in  themselves, 
which  are  not  expedient,  and  therefore  not  right,  for  a 


V.  U]    SEEKING  THE  FATHERLAND       145 

Christian  man  to  do,  if  they  fasten  him  down  to  this 
present.  And  you  will  have  to  cut  yourselves  loose 
from  a  good  deal  to  which  otherwise  it  would  be  per- 
missible for  you  to  be  attached,  if  you  intend  to  rise 
towards  God;  and  whatever  we  do  like  other  people, 
we  shall  have  to  do  from  a  manifestly  different  temper 
or  spirit.  Two  men  maj'"  engage  in  precisely  the  same 
occupation.  For  instance,  there  may  bo  two  tellers  at 
one  side  of  a  bank  counter,  or  two  depositors  on  the 
other,  doing  exactly  the  same  things,  and  yet  one  of 
them  may  do  them  so  as  to  *  declare  plainly,'  even  in 
that  act,  '  that  he  is  seeking  a  country,'  and  that  he  is 
not  wholly  swallowed  up  in  the  love  and  high  estimate 
of  worldly  wealth.  The  motive  from  which,  the  end 
towards  which,  the  help  by  which,  the  accompanying 
thoughts  with  which,  we  do  our  daily,  secular  work, 
may  hallow  it,  and  make  it  express  our  heavenly- 
mindedness,  as  completely  as  if  we  went  apart  on  the 
mountain,  and  held  communion  in  prayer  and  praise 
with  God. 

We  do  not  w^ant  'plain'  declarations  by  so-called 
religious  acts,  still  less  by  religious  professions,  half  as 
much  as  we  do  plain  declarations  by  an  obviously 
Christian  way  of  doing  secular  things,  and  living  the 
daily  life  of  men  upon  earth.  Remember  the  illustra- 
tion from  the  conduct  of  the  very  men  of  whom  my 
text  sfieaks.  I  said  that  they  kept  themselves  aloof 
from  the  civilisation  around  them.  That  requires 
modification  to  be  a  full  statement  of  the  case.  They 
threw  themselves  into  it,  when  necessary,  with  all 
energy.  Lot  went  down  to  Sodom  because  it  offered 
good  grazing  land.  He  behaved  just  as  many  profess- 
ing Christians  handle  the  world,  going  down  amongst 
the   slime-pits  and  the    scoundrels    for    the    sake    of 

K 


146  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

making  a  little  money  out  of  them — whilst  Abraham 
stopped  on  the  more  barren  pastures  of  the  hills,  with 
freedom,  security,  and  holiness.  When  Lot  got  what  he 
deserved,  and  was  involved  in  the  disaster  of  the  city 
that  he  had  made  his  home,  Abraham  did  not  say,  '  It 
is  a  very  sad  thing,  but  Lot  must  get  himself  out  of  tlie 
difficulty.'  He  buckled  on  his  sword  and  armed  his 
followers,  turning  himself  into  a  soldier  for  the  time 
being,  and  promptly  gave  chase  to  the  robbers,  follow- 
ing them  all  through  the  night,  along  the  whole  length 
of  the  Holy  Land,  and  pounced  upon  them,  routing 
them,  as  they  lay  in  fancied  security,  and  liberating 
their  prisoner,  who  was  the  captive  of  his  own  lust  and 
covetousness  much  more  sadly  than  of  the  Eastern 
marauders. 

And  so,  the  detachment  from  the  present,  which  is 
needful  for  Christian  men,  is  to  be  combined  with  the 
most  energetic  discharge  of  the  duties  which  we  owe 
to  ourselves  and  to  those  around  us,  and  especially  to 
be  combined  with  the  most  diligent  work  for  those 
who  have  fallen  captive  to  the  snares  of  the  world 
which  we,  by  His  mercy,  have  been  able  to  escape. 
And  he  will  best  manifest,  and  most  plainly  declare, 
that  he  seeks  a  country  who  seeks  most  earnestly  to 
hallow  all  ordinary  life,  and  to  do  the  work,  here  and 
now,  which  God  prescribes  for  him.  There  is  an  old 
story  about  a  question  being  put  to  some  good  man 
who  was  fond  of  playing  chess.  '  What  would  you  do 
if,  when  you  were  at  the  chess-board,  you  were  told 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  coming  ? '  '  Finish  the  game '  was 
the  wise  answer.  There  is  another  story  about  a  scene 
in  the  American  House  of  Representatives  in  its  early 
time.  A  great  darkness  came  on  during  the  sitting, 
and  some  timid  souls  began  to  think  that  the  last  day 


v.u]   THE  FUTURE  VINDICATES  GOD   147 

was  at  hand.  The  President  said,  *  Bring  candles  and 
let  us  go  on  with  the  debate.'  If  the  Master  is  coming, 
we  are  best  found  doing  our  work.  Yes !  Best  doing 
our  work,  if  it  is  His  work.  And  all  our  work  may 
be  His  if  it  is  done  for  His  sake  and  in  His  strength. 

Christian  men  and  women  !  see  to  it  that  there  be 
no  ambiguity  about  your  position,  no  mistaking  your 
nationality,  and  that  in  your  life,  without  ostentation, 
without  offensively  forcing  your  religion  upon  peoples' 
notice,  you  declare  plainly  that  you,  at  any  rate,  seek 
your  native  home. 


THE  FUTURE   WHICH  VINDICATES  GOD 

'Wherefore  God  is  not  ashamed  to  be  called  their  God;  for  He  hath  prepared 
for  them  a  city.'— Heb.  xi.  16. 

These  are  bold  words.  They  tell  us  that  unless  God 
has  provided  a  future  condition  of  social  blessedness 
for  those  whom  He  calls  His,  their  life's  experience  on 
earth  is  a  blot  on  His  character  and  administration. 
He  needs  heaven  for  His  vindication.  The  preparation 
of  the  City  is  the  reason  why  He  is  not '  ashamed  to  be 
called  their  God.'  If  there  were  not  such  a  preparation, 
He  had  need  to  be  ashamed.  Then  my  text,  further,  by 
its  first  word  'wherefore,'  carries  our  thoughts  back 
to  what  has  been  said  beforehand ;  and  that  is,  '  They 
desire  a  better  country,  that  is,  a  heavenly.'  Therefore 
God  '  is  not  ashamed  of  them,'  as  the  Revised  Version 
has  it,  with  a  fuller  rendering,  •  to  be  called  their  God.' 
That  is  to  say,  the  attitude  of  the  men  who  look  ever 
forward,  through  the  temporal,  to  the  things  unseen 
and  eternal,  is  worthy  of  their  relation  with  Him,  and 
it  alone  is  worthy.  And  if  people  professing  to  be  His, 
and  professing  that  He  is  theirs,  do  not  so  live,  they 


148  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

would  be  a  disgrace  to  God,  and  He  would  be  ashamed 
to  own  them  for  His. 

So  there  are  two  lines  of  thought  suggested  by  our 
text ;  two  sets  of  obligations  which  are  deduced  by  the 
writer  of  this  Epistle  from  that  solemn  name— 'The 
God  of  Abraham,  and  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob.'  The  one 
set  of  obligations  refers  to  Him;  the  other  to  us.  There 
are,  then,  three  things  here  for  our  consideration — the 
name;  what  it  pledges  God  to  do;  and  what  it  binds 
men  to  seek.  Let  me  ask  you  to  look  at  these  three 
things  with  me. 

I.  First  of  all,  then,  regard  the  significance  of  the  name 
round  which  the  whole  argument  of  our  verse  turns. 

The  writer  lays  hold  of  that  wonderful  designation, 
by  which  the  God  of  the  whole  earth  knit  Himself,  in 
special  relationship  of  unity  and  mutual  possession,  to 
these  three  poor  men — Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
and  he  would  have  us  ponder  that  name,  as  meaning 
a  great  deal  more  than  the  fact  that  these  three  were 
His  worshippers,  and  that  He  was  their  God,  in  the 
sense  in  which  Moloch  was  the  God  of  the  Phoenicians  ; 
Jupiter,  the  god  of  the  Romans ;  or  Zeus  of  the  Greeks. 
There  is  a  far  deeper  and  sacreder  relation  involved 
than  that.  *  The  God  of  Abraham,  and  of  Isaac,  and  of 
Jacob'  means  not  only  that  His  name  was  in  some 
measure  known  as  a  designation,  and  in  some  measure 
honoured  by  external  worship,  by  the  patriarchs,  but 
it  involved  much  in  regard  to  Him,  and  much  in  regard 
to  them.  It  is  the  name  which  He  took  for  Himself, 
not  which  men  gave  to  Him,  and,  therefore,  it  ex- 
presses what  He  had  made  Himself  to  these  men.  That 
is  to  say,  the  name  implies  a  direct  act  of  self-revelation 
on  the  part  of  God.  It  implies  condescending  approach 
and  nearness  of  communion.      It  implies  possession, 


V.16]  THE  FUTURE  VINDICATES  GOD    149 

mutual  and  reciprocal,  as  all  possession  of  spirit  by  spirit 
must  be.  It  implies  still  more  wonderfully  and  pro- 
foundly tliat,  just  as  in  regard  to  the  relations  between 
ourselves,  so,  in  regard  to  the  loftiest  of  all  relations, 
God  owns  men,  and  men  possess  God,  because,  on  both 
sides  of  the  relationship,  there  is  the  same  love.  Other 
forms  of  connection  between  men  and  God  differ  from 
this  deepest  of  all  in  that  the  attitude  on  the  one  side 
corresponds  to,  but  is  different  from,  the  attitude  on  the 
other.  If  we  think  of  God  as  the  object  of  trust,  on 
His  side  there  is  faithfulness,  on  our  side  there  is  faith. 
If  we  think  of  Him  as  the  object  of  adoration,  on  His 
side  there  is  loftiness,  on  our  side  there  is  lowliness.  If 
we  think  of  Him  as  the  Supreme  Governor,  His  com- 
mandment is  answered  by  our  obedience.  But  if  we 
think  of  Him  as  ours,  and  of  ourselves  as  His,  the  bond 
is  identical  on  either  part.  And  though  there  be  all  the 
difference  that  there  is  between  a  drop  of  dew  and  the 
boundless  ocean,  between  the  little  love  that  refreshes 
and  bedews  my  heart,  and  the  great  abyss  of  the  same 
that  lies,  not  stagnant  though  calm,  in  His,  yet  my  love 
is  like  God's,  and  God's  love  is  like  mine.  And  that  is 
the  deepest  meaning  of  the  name,  'the  God  of  Abraham, 
and  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob ' : — mutual  possession  based 
upon  common  and  identical  love. 

And  then,  of  course,  in  so  far  as  we  are  concerned, 
the  name  carries  with  it  the  most  blessed  depths  of  the 
devout  life,  in  all  its  sacredness  of  intimacy,  in  all  its 
sweetness  of  communion,  in  all  its  perfectness  of  de- 
pendence, in  all  its  victory  over  self,  in  all  its  triumph- 
ant appropriation,  as  its  very  own,  of  the  common  and 
universal  good.  It  is  much  to  be  able  to  say  *  Our  God, 
our  help  in  ages  past.'  It  is  more  to  be  able  to  say  '  My 
Lord  and  my  God.'    And  that  appropriation  deprives 


150  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

no  other  of  his  possession  of  God.  I  do  not  rob  you  of 
one  beam  of  the  sunshine  when  it  irradiates  my  vision. 
We  take  in  of  the  common  hind  that  which  belongs  to 
us,  and  no  other  man  is  the  poorer  or  has  the  less  for 
his.  My  God  is  thy  God ;  and  when  we  each  realise  our 
individual  and  personal  relation  to  Him,  as  expressed 
by  these  two  little  words,  then  we  are  able  to  say,  in 
close  union, '  Our  God,  the  God  and  Father  of  us  all.' 
So  much,  then,  for  the  name. 

II.  Now  a  word  or  two,  in  the  second  place,  as  to 
what  that  name  pledges  God  to  do. 

He  is  '  not  ashamed '  of  it,  '  for  He  hath  prepared  for 
them  a  city.'  Now  I  do  not  need  to  enter  at  all  upon 
the  question  as  to  whether  the  three  patriarchs  to 
whom  my  text  has  original  reference  had  any  notion  of 
a  future  life.  It  matters  nothing  where  or  how  they 
thought  that  that  coming  blessing  towards  which  they 
were  ever  looking  was  to  be  realised.  The  point  of  the 
text  is  that,  in  any  case,  they  were  servants  of  a  future 
promised  to  them  by  God,  as  they  believed,  and  that 
that  future  shaped  their  whole  life. 

Think  of  what  their  life  was.  How  all  their  days, 
from  the  moment  when  Abraham  left  his  home,  to  the 
moment  when  the  dying  Jacob  said,  with  a  passion  of 
unfilled  expectancy,  which  yet  had  in  it  no  hesitancy  or 
doubt  or  rebuke,  'I  have  waited  for  Thy  salvation,  O 
Lord,'  that  future  shaped  their  whole  career !  And 
then,  if  the  end  of  all  was  that  they  lay  down  in  the 
dust  and  died,  having  been  lured  on  from  step  to  step 
by  dazzling  illusions  dangled  before  them,  which  were 
nothing  but  dreams,  what  about  the  God  who  did  it  ? 
and  what  about  their  relation  to  Him!  Would  there 
be  anything  in  such  a  God  deserving  to  be  worshipped? 
Might  He  not  be  ashamed  of  *  being  called  their  God'  if 


V.16]  THE  FUTURE  VINDICATES  GOD    151 

that  was  all  that  they  got  thereby?  God  needs  the 
City  for  His  own  vindication. 

Now  that  seems  to  be  a  daring  way  of  putting  it,  but 
it  is  only  another  form  of  expressing  a  very  plain 
thought,  that  the  facts  of  the  religious  life  here  on 
earth  are  such  as  necessarily  do  involve  a  future  of 
blessedness,  and  a  heaven. 

I  need  not,  I  suppose,  dwell  for  more  than  just  in  a 
sentence  upon  the  first  plain  way  in  which  this  truth 
may  be  illustrated— namely,  that  nothing  but  a  future 
life  of  blessedness,  such  as  we  usually  connote  by  the 
simple  name  '  heaven,'  saves  God's  veracity  and  the 
truthfulness  of  His  promises.  If  we  believe  that  the 
awful  silence  of  the  universe  has  ever  been  broken  by 
a  divine  voice;  if  we  believe  that  God  has  said  any- 
thing to  men — apart,  I  mean,  from  the  revelation  of 
Himself  made  by  our  nature  and  in  our  daily  experience 
— we  must  believe  that  He  has  promised  a  life  to  come. 
And  unless  such  a  life  do  await  those  who,  humbly  and 
with  many  faults  and  imperfections,  have  yet  clung  to 
Him  as  theirs,  and  yielded  themselves  to  Him  as  His 
possession,  then 

'  The  pillared  firmament  is  rottenness, 
And  earth's  base  built  on  stubble.' 

Let  God  be  true  and  every  man  a  lie.  Unless  there  is  a 
heaven,  He  has  flashed  before  us  an  illusion  like  that 
which  has  tempted  many  a  wanderer  into  the  bog  to 
perish.  He  has  fooled  us  with  a  mirage,  which  at 
the  distance  looked  like  palm-trees  and  cool,  flashing 
lakes,  and  when  we  reach  it  is  only  burning  sand, 
strewn  with  bleached  bones  of  the  generations  that 
have  been  cheated  before  us.  .'God  is  not  ashamed  .  .  , 
for  He  hath  prepared  a  city.' 


152  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

But,  then,  there  is  another  thought,  closely  con- 
nected with  the  preceding,  and  yet  capable  of  being 
dealt  with  separately,  and  that  is  that  there  is  a  blot 
ineffaceable  on  the  divine  character  unless  the  desires 
which  He  Himself  has  implanted  have  a  reality  corre- 
sponding to  them.  That  is  true,  of  course,  in  the  most 
absolute  sense,  in  regard  to  all  the  physical  necessities 
and  yearnings  which  the  animal  nature  possesses.  In 
all  that  region  God  never  sends  mouths  but  He  sends 
meat  to  fill  them;  and  need  is  the  precursor  and  the 
prophecy  of  supply.  So  it  is  in  regard  to  the  whole 
creation ;  so  it  is  in  regard  to  that  in  us  which  we  share 
in  common  with  them.  Care  never  irks  the  full-fed  beast. 
No  ungratified  desires  torture  the  frame  of  the  short- 
lived creatures.  'Foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of 
air  have  their  roosting-places ' ;  and  all  beings  dwell 
in  an  environment  absolutely  corresponding  to  their 
capacities,  and  fitted  to  satisfy  their  necessities.  But 
amongst  them  stalks  the  exile  of  creation,  man ; 
blessed,  though  he  sometimes  thinks  he  is  cursed,  with 
longings  which  the  world  has  nothing  to  satisfy;  and 
with  ideals  which  are  never  capable  of  realisation 
amidst  the  imperfections  and  fleetingnesses  of  time. 
And  is  that  to  be  all  ?  If  so,  then  God  is  a  tyrant  and 
not  a  god,  and  there  is  little  to  love  in  such  a  char- 
acter, and  He  might  be  ashamed,  if  He  is  not,  to  have 
made  men  like  that,  so  ill-fitted  for  their  abode,  and  to 
have  bestowed  upon  them  the  possibility  of  imagining 
that  to  which  realisation  shall  be  for  ever  denied. 

And  if  that  is  true  in  regard  of  many  of  the  desires 
of  life,  apart  altogether  from  religion,  it  becomes  still 
more  manifestly  and  eminently  true  in  regard  of 
Christian  experience  and  devout  emotions.  For  if  there 
is  any  one  thing  which  an  acceptance  of  Christianity 


V.16]  THE  FUTURE  VINDICATES  GOD    153 

in  the  heart  and  life  is  sure  to  do,  it  is  to  kindle  and 
make  dominant  longings,  yearnings  rising  sometimes 
to  pain,  which  the  world  is  utterly  unable  to  satisfy. 
Is  it  ever  to  be  so  ?  Then,  oh  then,  better  for  us  that 
we  should  never  have  known  that  name  ;  better  for  us 
that  we  had  nourished  a  blind  life  within  our  brains ; 
better  for  us  that  we  had  never  been  born.  But '  He 
hath  prepared  for  them  a  city,'  where  wishes  shall  be 
embodied,  and  the  ideal  shall  be  reality,  and  desires 
shall  be  fulfilled,  and  everything  that  has  dwelt,  silently 
and  secretly,  in  the  chambers  of  the  imagination  shall 
come  forth  into  the  sunlight.  Morning  dreams  are  pro- 
verbially true.  'We  are  not  of  the  night,  nor  of  the 
darkness :  we  are  the  children  of  the  day,'  and  our 
dreams  are  one  day  to  pass  into  the  sober  certainty  of 
waking  bliss. 

Then  there  is  another  thought  still,  and  that  is  that 
it  would  be  a  blot  ineffaceable  on  the  divine  character 
if  all  the  discipline  of  life  were  to  have  no  field  in  the 
future  on  which  its  results  could  be  manifested.  These 
three  poor  men  were  schooled  by  many  sorrows.  What 
were  they  all  for  ?  For  the  City.  And  in  like  manner 
the  facts  of  our  earthly  life  and  our  Christian  experi- 
ences are  equally  inexplicable  and  confounding  unless 
bej'ond  these  dim  and  trifling  things  of  time  there  lie 
the  sunlit  and  solemn  fields  of  eternity,  in  which  what- 
soever of  force,  valour,  worthiness,  manhood,  we  have 
made  our  own  here  shall  expatiate  for  ever  more. 

I  do  not  mean  that  life  is  so  sad  and  weary  that  we 
need  to  call  another  world  into  existence  to  redress  the 
balance  of  the  old.  I  think  that  is  only  very  partially 
true,  for  we  are  always  apt  in  such  considerations  to 
minimise  the  pleasures  on  the  whole,  and  to  exaggerate 
the  pains  on  the  whole,  of  the  earthly  life.    But  I  mean 


154  HEBREWS  [en.  xi. 

that  the  one  true  view  of  all  that  befalls  us  here  on 
earth  is  discipline;  and  that  discipline  implies  an  end 
for  which  it  is  applied,  and  a  realm  in  which  its  results 
are  to  be  manifested.  And  if  God  carefully  trains  us, 
passes  us  through  varieties  of  condition,  in  order  to 
evolve  in  us  a  character  conformed  to  His  will ;  puts  us 
to  the  long  threescore  years  and  ten  of  the  apprentice- 
ship, and  then  has  no  workshop  in  which  to  occupy  us 
afterwards,  we  are  reduced  to  a  state  of  utter  intellec- 
tual bewilderment,  and  life  is  an  inextricable  tangle 
and  pxizzle. 

You  may  go  into  certain  prehistoric  depots,  where 
you  will  find  h'^ing  by  thousands  flint  weapons  which 
have  been  carefully  chipped  and  shaped  and  polished, 
and  then,  apparently,  left  in  a  heap,  and  never  any- 
thing done  with  them.  Is  the  world  a  great  cemetery 
of  weapons  prepared  and  then  tossed  aside  like  that? 
We  need  a  heaven  where  the  faithfulness  of  the  servant 
shall  be  exchanged  for  the  joy  of  the  Lord,  and  he  that 
was  faithful  in  a  few  things  shall  be  made  ruler  over 
many  things. 

III.  And  now  a  word  about  my  last  thought;  and 
that  is,  what  this  name  binds  Christian  people  to  seek. 

My  text  in  its  former  part  says,  'They  desire  a  better 
country,  that  is,  a  heavenly :  wherefore  God  is  not 
ashamed  to  be  called  their  God.'  If  Abraham,  instead 
of  stopping  under  the  oak  tree  at  Mamre,  had  gone 
down  into  Sodom  with  Lot,  and  taken  up  his  quarters 
there;  or  if  he  had  become  a  naturalised  citizen  of 
Hebron,  and  struck  up  alliances  with  the  children  of 
Heth,  would  the  Sodomites  or  the  Hebronites  or  the 
Hittites  have  thought  any  the  better  of  him  therefor? 
As  long  as  he  kept  apart  from  them,  he  witnessed 
to  the  promise,  and  God  looked  upon  him  and  blessed 


V.16]  THE  FUTURE  VINDICATES  GOD    155 

him.  But  if,  professing  to  look  for  'tlio  city  wliich 
hath  the  foundations,'  he  had  not  been  content  to  dwell 
in  tabernacles,  God  would  have  been  ashamed  of  him 
to  be  called  his  God. 

Translate  that  into  plain  English,  and  it  is  this.  As 
long  as  Christian  people  live  like  pilgrims  and  strangers, 
they  are  worthy  of  being  called  God's,  and  God  is  glad 
to  be  called  theirs.  And  as  long  as  they  do  so,  the 
world  will  know  a  religious  man  when  it  sees  him,  and, 
though  it  may  not  like  him,  it  will  at  least  respect  him. 
But  a  secularised  Church  or  individuals  who  say  that 
they  are  Christians,  and  who  have  precisely  the  same 
estimates  of  good  and  evil  as  the  world  has,  and  live 
by  the  same  maxims,  and  pursue  the  same  aims,  and 
never  lift  their  eyes  to  look  at  the  City  beyond  the 
river,  these  are  a  disgrace  to  God  and  to  themselves, 
and  to  the  religion  which  they  say  they  profess. 

I  cannot  but  feel— and  feel,  I  think,  in  growing 
degree — that  one  main  clause  of  the  woful  feebleness 
of  our  average  Christianity  is  that  our  hopes  and 
visions  of  the  City  which  hath  the  foundations  have 
become  dim,  and  that,  to  a  veiy  large  extent,  the 
thoughts  of  'the  rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of 
God '  is  dormant  in  the  minds  of  the  mass  of  professing 
Christian  people. 

Oh,  dear  friends!  if  we  will  yield  to  that  sweet, 
strong  appeal  that  is  made  to  us  in  the  name,  and, 
feeling  that  God  is  ours  and  we  are  His,  will  turn  our 
hearts  and  thoughts  more  than,  alas!  we  have  done, 
to  that  blessed  hope,  Jesus  will  not  be  ashamed  to  call 
us  brethren,  nor  God  be  ashamed  to  be  called  our  God. 
Let  us  beware  that  we  are  not  ashamed  to  be  called 
His,  nor  to  *  declare  plainly  that  we  seek  a  country.' 


THE  FAITH  OF  MOSES 

'By  faith  Mosos,  when  he  was  come  to  years,  refused  to  be  called  the  eon 
of  Pharaoh's  daughter;  25.  Choosing  rather  to  sufTer  aflliction  with  the  people 
of  God,  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season ;  2G.  Esteeming  the 
reproach  of  Clirist  greater  riches  than  the  treasures  in  Kgypt :  for  he  had  respect 
unto  the  recompence  of  the  reward.  27.  By  faith  he  forsook  Egypt,  not  fearing 
the  wrath  of  the  king:  for  he  endured,  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible.'— Heb. 
xi.  24-27. 

I  HAVE  ventured  to  take  these  verses  as  a  text,  not 
with  the  idea  of  expounding  their  details,  or  even  of 
touching  many  of  the  large  questions  which  they  raise, 
but  for  the  sake  of  catching  their  general  drift.  They 
are  the  writer's  description  of  two  significant  instances 
in  the  life  of  the  great  Lawgiver  of  the  power  of  faith. 
He  deals  with  both  in  the  same  fashion.  He  first  tells 
the  act,  then  he  analyses  its  spring  in  the  state  of  feel- 
ing which  produced  it,  and  then  he  traces  that  state  of 
feeling  to  certain  external  facts  which  were  obvious  to 
the  faith  of  Moses.  '  The  Great  Refusal,'  by  which  he 
flung  up  his  position  at  the  court  of  Pharaoh,  and 
chose  to  identify  himself  with  his  peoj)le,  is  the  one. 
His  flight  from  Egypt  to  the  solitudes  of  Horeb  is  the 
other.  The  two  acts  are  traced  to  the  states  of  feeling 
or  opinion  in  Moses.  The  former  came  from  a  choice 
and  an  estimate.  '  He  chose  to  suffer  with  the  people 
of  God ' ;  and  he  '  esteemed  the  reproach  .  .  .  greater 
riches  than  the  treasures  in  Egypt.'  The  latter  in  like 
manner  came  from  a  state  of  feeling.  He  'forsook 
Egypt,  not  fearing  the  wrath  of  the  king.'  What 
underlay  the  choice,  the  estimate,  the  courage?  'He 
had  respect,'  or  more  literally  and  forcibly,  '  he  looked 
away  to  the  recompense  of  the  reward.'  He  saw  '  Him 
who  is  invisible.'  So,  an  act  of  vision  which  disclosed 
him  a  future  recompense  and  a  present  God  was  the 

156 


V8. 24-27]     THE  FAITH  OF  MOSES  157 

basis  of  all.  And  from  that  act  of  vision  there  camo 
states  of  mind  which  made  it  easy  and  natural  to 
choose  a  lot  of  suffering  and  humiliation,  and  to  turn 
away  from  all  the  glories  and  treasures  and  wrath  of 
Egypt. 

That  is  to  say,  we  have  here  two  things — what  this 
man  saw,  and  what  the  vision  did  for  his  life,  and 
I  wish  to  consider  these  two.  The  same  sight  is 
possible  for  us ;  and,  if  we  have  it,  the  same  conduct 
will  certainly  follow. 

I.  Note  then,  first,  what  this  man  saw. 

Two  things,  says  the  writer.  '  He  looked  away  to  the 
recompense  of  the  rew^ard,'  and  he  saw  God.  Now  I 
need  not  remind  j'ou,  I  suppose,  that  these  two  objects 
of  real  vision  correspond  to  the  tw^o  elements  of  faith 
which  the  writer  describes  in  the  first  verse  of  our 
chapter,  w^here  he  says  that  it  is  '  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for';  to  which  corresponds  'the  recom- 
pense of  the  reward,'  and  '  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen,'  to  which  answers  '  Him  who  is  invisible.' 

Now,  that  conception  of  faith,  as  having  mainly  to 
do  wath  the  future  and  the  unseen,  is  somewhat 
different  superficially  from  the  ordinary  notion  of 
faith,  set  forth  in  the  New  Testament,  as  being  trust 
in  Jesus  Christ.  But  the  difference  is  only  superficial, 
and  arises  mainly  from  a  variety  in  the  prominence 
given  to  the  elements  which  both  conceptions  have  in 
common.  For  the  faith  which  is  trust  in  Jesus  Christ 
is  directed  towards  the  unseen,  and  includes  in  itself  the 
realisation  of  the  future.  And  the  faith  which  is  vivid 
consciousness  of  the  invisible  world,  and  realisation  of 
a  coming  retribution,  finds  them  both  most  clearly  and 
most  surely  in  that  Lord  'in  whom,  though  now  we 
see  Him  not,  yet  believing  we  rejoice,'  and  anticipate 


158  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

the  future  *  end  of  our  faith,  even  the  salvation  of  our 
souls. 

So  we  may  take  these  two  points  that  emerge  from 
our  text,  and  look  at  tliem  as  containing  for  our 
present  purpose  a  sufficient  description  of  what  our 
faith  ought  to  do  for  us. 

There  must  be,  first,  then,  a  vivid  and  resolute  reali- 
sation of  future  retribution.  Now,  note  that  this  same 
expression,  a  somewhat  peculiar  one,  *  the  recompense 
of  the  reward,'  is  found  again  in  this  letter  in  directly 
the  opposite  reference  from  that  which  it  has  here. 
In  the  second  chapter  of  the  Epistle  we  read  that 
'  every  transgression  and  disobedience  shall  receive  its 
just  recompense  of  reward.'  Both  recompense  by 
punishment  and  by  blessedness  are  included  in  the 
word,  so  that  its  meaning  is  the  exact  requital  of  good 
or  evil  by  a  sovereign  judge. 

And  that  is  the  very  purpose  which  faith  has  for  one 
of  its  chief  functions,  to  burn  in  the  conviction  on  our 
slothful  minds — that  all  that  is  round  about  us  is  at 
once  cause  and  consequence ;  that  life  is  a  network 
of  issues  of  past  actions,  and  of  progenitors  of  future 
ones ;  that  nothing  that  a  man  does  ever  dies ;  that 

'  Through  his  soul  the  echoes  roll, 
And  grow  for  ever  and  for  ever ' 

that  *  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap.' 
Character  is  the  result  of  actions.  Condition  is  largely, 
if  not  altogether,  dependent  upon  conduct  and  upon 
character.  And,  just  as  the  sandstone  cliffs  were  laid 
down  grain  by  grain  by  an  evaporated  ocean,  and 
stand  eternal  when  the  waters  have  all  vanished,  so 
whatever  else  you  and  I  are  making  of,  and  in,  our 
lives,  we  are  making  permanent    cliffs  of  character 


vs.  24-27]      THE  FAITH  OF  MOSES  159 

which  will  remaiu  when  all  the  waves  of  time  have 
foamed  themselves  away. 

That  process,  which  is  going  on  moment  by  moment 
all  through  our  lives,  Christian  faith  follows  beyond 
the  grave.  It  works  right  up  to  the  edge  of  the  grave 
as  ever3^body  can  see,  and  many  a  man's  last  harvest 
of  the  seed  that  he  sowed  to  the  flesh  is  his,  when  laid 
a  corrupted  corpse  into  his  coflBn.  But  does  it  stop 
there  ?  The  world  may  say,  '  We  know  not.'  Christian 
faith  overleaps  the  gulf  and  sees  the  process  going  on 
more  intensely  and  unhindered  in  the  life  yonder. 
We  are  like  signalmen  in  their  isolated  boxes.  They 
pull  a  lever,  and  the  points  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away 
are  shifted.  The  man  does  not  see  what  he  has  done, 
but  he  has  done  it  all  the  same.  And  when  his  time 
for  travelling  comes,  he  will  find  that  he  has  deter- 
mined the  course  on  which  he  must  run  by  the  actions 
that  were  done  here. 

And  so,  brethren,  this  conviction,  not  merely  as  being 
a  selfish  looking  for  a  peaceful  and  blessed  heaven,  as 
some  people  try  to  vulgarise  the  conception,  but  as 
being  the  thrilling  consciousness  that  every  deed  has 
its  issues,  and  is  to  be  done,  or  refrained  from,  in 
view  of  these,  this  is  what  is  meant  by  the  word  of  my 
text :  '  he  looked  away '  to  the  recompense  of  reward. 

Now  remember  that  such  a  vision  clear  and  definite 
before  a  man,  substantial  and  solid  and  continuous 
enough  to  become  a  formative  power  in  his  life,  and 
even  to  determine  its  main  direction,  is  only  realisable 
as  the  result  of  very  sjjecial  and  continuous  effort.  The 
writer  of  the  letter  employs  a  singular  and  a  strong 
word,  which  I  have  tried  to  Etiglish  by  the  phrase 
'looking  off  unto  the  recompense.'  He  turned  away 
by  a  determined  effort  of  resolution,  averting  his  gaze 


/. 


160  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

from  other  things  in  order  to  fix  it  on  the  far  off  thing. 
One  use  of  the  tube  of  the  telescope  is  to  shut  out 
cross  lights,  and  concentrate  the  vision  on  the  far  off 
object,  looked  at  undisturbed.  Unless  we  can  thus 
shut  off  on  either  side  these  dazzling  and  bewildering 
brilliances  that  dance  and  flicker  round  us,  we  shall 
never  see  clearly  that  solemn  future  and  all  its  infinite 
possibilities  of  sorrow  or  of  blessedness.  The  eye  that 
is  focused  to  look  at  the  things  on  the  earth  cannot 
see  the  stars.  When  the  look-out  man  at  the  bow 
wants  to  make  sure  whether  that  white  flash  on  the 
horizon  is  a  sun-smitten  sail  or  a  breaker,  he  knits  his 
brows  and  shades  his  eyes  with  his  hand,  and  concen- 
trates his  steady  gaze  till  he  sees.  And  you  and  I  have 
to  do  that,  or  the  most  real  things  in  the  universe, 
away  yonder  in  the  extreme  distance,  will  be  proble- 
matical and  questionable  to  us.  Oh,  brother !  our 
Christian  lives  would  be  altogether  different  if  we 
made  the  resolve  and  kept  it,  to  fix  our  gaze  on  '  the 
recompense  of  the  reward.' 

Then  the  next  thing  that  this  man  saw,  says  my  text, 
was  '  Him  w  ho  is  invisible,' 

Now  I  do  not  suppose  that  there  is  any  reference 
there  to  the  miraculous  manifestations  of  a  divine 
presence  which  were  given  to  the  lawgiver,  for  these 
came  long  after  the  incidents  which  are  being  dealt 
with  in  my  text.  True !  he  saw  God  face  to  face  amidst 
the  solitudes  and  the  sanctities  of  Sinai.  But  that  is 
not  at  all  what  the  writer  is  thinking  about  here.  He 
is  thinking  about  the  vision  which  was  given  to  Moses, 
in  no  other  fashion  than  it  may  be  given  to  us,  if  we 
will  have  it,  the  sight  of  God  to  the  '  inward  eye,  which 
is  the  bliss  of  solitude,'  and  ministers  strength  to  our 
lives,  in  solitude  or  in  society.    The  conscious  realisa- 


vs.  24-27]       THE  FAITH  OF  MOSES  161 

tion  of  God's  presence  in  our  minds  and  hearts  and 
wills,  and  the  whole  trembling  and  yet  rejoicing  inner 
man,  aware  that  God  is  near,  are  what  is  meant  by  this 
vision  of  Him.  The  realisation  of  His  presence  con- 
tinually, the  sight  of  Him  in  nature,  so  that  every  bush 
burns  with  a  visible  deity,  and  every  cloud  is  the  pillar 
in  which  He  moves  for  guidance,  the  realisation  of  His 
presence,  in  history,  in  society,  operating  all  changes 
and  working  round  us,  and  in  us,  and  on  us — this  is  the 
highest  result  of  a  true  religious  faith. 

And  it  is  worthy  to  be  called  sigJit.  For  not  the 
vision  of  the  eye  is  the  source  of  the  truest  certitude, 
but  the  vision  of  the  inward  spirit.  A  man  may  bo 
surer  of  God  than  he  is  of  the  material  universe  that 
he  touches  and  handles  and  beholds.  The  vision  that 
a  trustful  heart  has  of  God  is  as  real,  as  direct,  and, 
I  venture  to  say,  more  assured,  than  the  knowledge 
which  is  brought  to  us  through  sense. 

And  such  a  vision  ought  to  be,  and  will  be  if  we  are 
right,  no  disturbing  or  unwelcome  thought,  but  a 
delight  and  a  strength.  A  prisoner  in  a  solitary  cell 
sometimes  goes  mad  because  he  knows  that  somewhere 
in  its  walls  there  is  a  peep-hole  at  which,  at  any 
moment,  the  eye  of  a  gaoler  may  be  on  the  watch.  But 
the  loving  heart  that  yearns  after  God  has  nothing  but 
joy  in  the  otherwise  awful  thought,  'If  I  take  the 
wings  of  the  morning,  Thou  art  there.  If  I  fly  to  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  west,  there  I  meet  Thee.'  'If 
I  make  my  bed  in  the  grave,  Thou  art  there.  Thou 
hast  beset  me  behind  and  before.'  Brethren,  either  our 
ghastliest  doubt  or  our  deepest  joy  is,  'Thou,  God, 
Beest  me,'    '  When  I  awake  I  am  still  with  Thee.' 

II.  And  now,  secondly,  notice  what  the  vision  did 
for  this  man. 

L 


162  HEBREWS  [oh.  xi. 

I  cannot  do  more  than  touch  very  lightly  upon  the 
various  points  that  are  involved  here.  But  I  would 
have  you  notice  in  general  that  the  writer  masses  the 
enemies  of  a  noble  life,  which  Moses  overcame  by  this 
sight,  in  three  general  classes  —  pleasures,  treasures, 
dangers.  The  faith  of  Moses  lifted  him  above  ignoble 
pleasures,  saved  him  from  coveting  fleeting  possessions, 
armed  him  against  mere  corporeal  perils.  And  these 
three — delights,  rules,  dangers,  may  be  roughly  said  to 
be  the  triple-headed  Cerberus  that  bars  our  way.  Let 
us  look  how  the  vision  will  help  to  overcome  them  all. 

This  sight  will  take  the  brightness  out  of  ignoble  and 
fleeting  pleasures.  Moses  had  the  ball  at  his  foot, 
Jewish  legends  tell  us  that  the  very  crown  was  in- 
tended to  be  placed  on  his  head.  However  that  may 
be,  a  life  of  luxurious  ease,  of  command  over  men, 
accompanied  by  the  half  deification  which  in  old  days 
hedged  a  king,  were  his  for  the  taking ;  and  he  turned 
from  them  all.  He  did  not  choose  suffering:  but  he 
chose  to  be  identified  with  the  people  of  God,  though 
he  knew  that  thereby  he  was  electing  a  life  of  sorrow 
and  of  pain.  The  world  has  seen  no  nobler  act  than 
that  when  he  passed  through  the  gates  of  Pharaoh's 
palace,  the  fragments  of  whose  glorious  architecture 
we  still  wonder  at,  and  housed  himself  in  the  dark  reed 
huts  where  the  slaves  dwelt. 

Now  that  same  spirit,  both  in  regard  to  choice  and 
to  estimate,  must  be  ours,  and  will  be  ours,  if  we  have 
any  depth  and  reality  of  vision  of  the  recompense  and 
of  the  invisible  God.  For  if  you  once  let  the  light  of 
these  two  solemn  thoughts  in  upon  the  delights  of 
earth,  how  poor  and  paltry,  how  coarse  and  ignoble, 
they  look!  Did  you  ever  see  the  scenes  of  a  theatre 
by  daylight  ?    What  daubs ;  what  rents ;  what  coarse 


vs.  24-27]       THE  FAITH  OF  MOSES  163 

work  !  Let  the  light  of  the  '  recompense '  and  of  God 
in  upon  earthly  deh'ghts,  and  how  they  shrivel,  and 
dwindle,  and  disappear!  Ah,  brethren!  if  we  would 
only  bring  our  earthly  do- ires  to  the  touchstone  of 
these  two  great  thoughts,  we  should  find  that  many  a 
thing  that  holds  us  would  slacken  its  grasp,  and  the 
fair  forms,  with  their  tiny  harps,  and  their  sweet  songs 
that  tempt  us  on  the  flowery  island,  would  be  seen 
for  what  they  are— ravenous  monsters  whose  guests 
are  in  the  depths  of  hell.  'He  had  respect  to  the 
recompense  of  the  reward,'  and  spurned  ignoble 
pleasures.  If  you  see  the  things  that  are,  you  will  not 
be  tempted  with  the  things  that  seem. 

And  then,  further,  such  a  vision  will  help  us  to 
appraise  at  their  true  value  earthly  possessions.  I 
cannot  enter  upon  the  question  of  what  the  writer 
means  precisely  by  that  singular  phrase,  attributing 
to  Moses  *  the  reproach  of  Christ.'  Whether  it  implies 
the  reproach  borne  for  Christ,  or  like  Christ,  or  by 
Christ,  all  which  interpretations  are  possible,  and  have 
been  suggested,  need  not  concern  us  now.  The  point 
is  that  the  twofold  vision  of  which  the  writer  is  speak- 
ing, let  in  upon  worldly  possessions,  reveals  their 
emptiness  and  drossiness,  as  compared  with  the  true 
riches. 

There  are  old  stories  of  men  who  in  the  night  re- 
ceived from  fairy  hands  gifts  of  gold  in  some  cave,  and 
when  the  daylight  came  upon  them  what  had  seemed 
to  be  gold  and  jewels  was  a  bundle  of  withered  leaves 
and  red  berries,  already  half  corrupted  and  altogether 
worthless.  There  are  many  things  that  the  world 
counts  very  precious  which  are  like  the  fairy's  gold. 
'.Nothing  that  can  be  taken  from  a  man  really  belongs 
Ho  him.    The  only  real  riches,  correspondent  with  his 


164  HEBREWS  [ch.  xi. 

/necessities,  are  those  which,  once  possessed,  are  in- 
i  separable  from  his  being,  the  riches  of  an  indweUing 
'  God,  and  of  a  nature  conformed  to  His. 

And  that  effect  of  the  vision  of  the  unseen  and  the 
future,  as  bringing  down  to  their  true  value  all  the 
wealth  of  Egypt  and  of  the  world,  is  a  lesson  which  no 
man  needs  more  than  do  we  whose  lives,  and  habits  of 
thinking,  are  passed  and  formed  in  a  commercial  com- 
munity, in  which  success  means  a  fortune,  and  failure 
means  poverty ;  in  which  the  poor  are  tempted  to  look 
upon  the  possession  of  wealth  as  the  only  thing  to  be 
coveted,  and  the  rich  are  tempted  to  look  upon  it  as 
the  one  thing  to  be  rejoiced  over.  Let  the  light  of  the 
future,  and  of  God,  ever  shine  upon  your  estimates  of 
the  worth  of  the  world's  wealth. 

Lastly,  such  a  vision  will  arm  a  man  against  all 
perils.  I  take  it  that  'forsaking  Egypt'  in  my  text 
refers  to  Moses'  flight  to  Horeb.  Now,  in  the  book 
of  Exodus  that  flight  is  traced  to  his  fear.  In  my 
text  it  is  traced  to  his  courage.  So,  then,  there  may 
dwell  in  one  heart  fearing  and  not  fearing.  There 
may  be  dread,  as  there  was  with  Moses,  sufficient 
to  impel  him  to  flight,  though  not  sufficient  to  in- 
duce him  to  abandon  the  purpose  which  made  flight 
necessary.  He  was  afraid  enough  to  shelter  himself. 
He  was  not  afraid  enough,  by  reason  of  dangers  and 
difficulties,  to  fling  up  his  mission. 

That  is  to  say,  the  vision  will  not  take  away  from  a 
man  natural  tremors,  nor  will  it  blind  him  to  real 
dangers  and  difficulties,  but  it  will  steady  his  resolve, 
and  make  him  determined,  though  he  may  have  to 
bow  before  the  blast,  to  yield  no  jot  of  his  convictions, 
nor  fling  away  any  of  his  confidence.  He  will  flee  to 
Horeb,  if  need  be,  but  he  will  not  cease  to  labour  for 


vs. 24-27]   THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES      165 

the  redemption  of  Israel.  If  we  put  onr  trust  in  God, 
and  live  in  the  continual  realisation  of  future  retribu- 
tion, then,  whilst  we  may  prudently  adapt  our  course 
so  as  to  find  a  smooth  bit  of  road  to  walk  on,  and  to 
avoid  dangers  which  may  threaten,  we  shall  never  let 
these  either  shake  our  confidence  in  God,  or  alter  our 
conviction  of  what  He  requires  from  us. 

So  I  gather  up  all  that  I  have  been  trying  to  say  in 
the  one  word — the  true  way  to  make  life  noble  is  the 
old  way,  the  way  of  faith.  The  sight  of  God,  the  vision 
of  judgment  will  make  earth's  pleasures  paltry,  earth's 
treasures  dross,  earth's  dangers  contemptible.  The 
way  to  secure  that  ennobling  and  strengthening  vision 
to  attend  us  everywhere,  is  to  keej)  near  to  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  fix  our  hearts  on  Him.  In  communion 
with  Him  pleasures  that  perish  will  woo  in  vain,  and 
possessions  from  which  we  must  part  will  lose  their 
worth,  and  perils  that  touch  the  body  will  cease  to 
terrify;  and  through  faith  'we  shall  be  more  than 
conquerors  in  Him  that  loved  us.' 


THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES  AND 
THEIR  LEADER 

'CompaRsed  about  -with  ro  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,  .  .  .  looking  unto  Jesus 
the  author  and  finisher  of  faith.'— Heu.  xii.  1,  2. 

What  an  awful  sight  the  rows  above  rows  of  spectators 
must  have  been  to  the  wrestler  who  looked  up  at  them 
from  the  arena,  and  saw  a  mist  of  white  faces  and 
pitiless  eyes  all  directed  on  himself  !  How  many  a  poor 
gladiator  turned  in  his  despair  from  them  to  the  place 


166  HEBREWS  [ch.xil 

where  purple  curtains  and  flashing  axes  proclaimed 
the  presence  of  the  emperor,  on  whose  word  hung 
his  life,  whose  will  could  crown  him  with  a  rich 
reward ! 

That  is  the  picture  which  this  text  brings  before  our 
eyes,  as  the  likeness  of  the  Christian  life.  We  are  in 
the  arena;  the  race  has  to  be  run,  the  battle  to  be 
fought.  All  round  and  high  above  us,  a  mist,  as  it 
were,  of  fixed  gazers  beholds  us,  and  on  the  throne 
is  the  Lord  of  life,  the  judge  of  the  strife,  whose  smile 
is  better  than  all  crowns,  whose  downward-pointing 
finger  seals  our  fate.  We  are  compassed  with  a  cloud 
of  witnesses,  and  we  may  see  Jesus  the  author  and 
finisher  of  faith.  Both  of  these  facts  are  alleged  here 
as  encouragements  to  persevering,  brave  struggle  in 
the  Christian  life.  Hence  we  have  here  mainly  two 
subjects  for  consideration,  namely  the  relation  between 
the  saints  who  are  gone  and  ourselves,  and  the 
encouragement  derived  from  it ;  and  the  contrasted 
relation  between  Jesus  and  ourselves,  and  the  en- 
couragement derived  from  it. 

I.  The  metaphor  of  the  '  cloud  of  witnesses'  is  perhaps 
intended  to  express  multitude,  and  also  eleva- 
tion. It  may  have  been  naturally  suggested  by  the 
thought  of  the  saints  of  the  Old  Testament  (of  whom 
the  previous  chapter  has  been  so  nobly  speaking)  as 
exalted  to  heaven,  and  hovering  far  above  and  far 
away  like  the  pure  whitenesses  that  tower  there. 
Raphael's  great  Sistine  Madonna  has  for  background 
just  such  a  light  mist  of  angel  faces  and  adoring  eyes 
all  turned  to  the  gentle  majesty  of  the  Virgin.  There 
may  also  be  blending  in  the  writer's  mind  such  a  refer- 
ence to  the  amphitheatre  as  we  have  already  noticed, 
which    certainly  exists  in    the  later    portion    of  the 


vs.  1,2]    THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES       1G7 

context.  But  we  must  remember  that  tempting  as  it  is 
to  a  hasty  reader  to  deduce  from  the  words  the  idea 
that  the  saints  whose  'warfare  is  accomplished'  look 
down  on  our  struggles  here,  there  is,  at  all  events,  no 
support  to  that  idea  in  the  word  *  witnesses.'  It  is  not 
used,  as  often  in  our  speech,  as  equivalent  to  spec- 
tators,' but  means  here  exactly  what  it  does  in  the 
previous  chapter,  namelj',  attestors  or  testifiers.  They 
are  not  witnesses  of  us,  but  to  us,  as  we  shall  see  I 
presently.  It  may,  indeed,  be  that  the  thought  of  the 
heavenly  spectators  of  our  Christian  course  is  implied 
in  the  whole  strain  of  the  passage,  and  of  the  imagery 
borrowed  from  the  arena,  which  would  certainly  be 
incomplete  if  there  were  nothing  to  answer  to  the 
spectators,  who,  whether  at  Corinth  or  Rome,  made  so 
important  a  part  in  the  scene. 

We  shall  be  going  too  far,  I  think,  if  we  dogmatically 
assert,  on  the  strength  of  a  figure,  that  this  context 
teaches  a  positive  communion  between  earth  and 
heaven  of  such  a  sort  as  that  they  who  have  '  overcome 
by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  His  testi- 
mony,' know  about  the  struggles  of  us  down  here  in  the 
arena.  Still,  one  feels  that  such  an  idea  is  almost 
needed  to  give  full  force  either  to  the  figure  or  exhorta- 
tion. It  does  seem  somewhat  lame  to  say.  You  are 
like  racers,  surrounded  with  a  crowd  of  witnesses, 
therefore  run,  only  do  not  suppose  that  they  really 
see  you.  If  this  be  so,  the  glowing  imagery  certainly 
seems  to  receive  a  violent  chill,  and  the  ilow  of  the 
exhortation  to  be  much  choked.  Still  we  can  go  no 
further  than  a  modest  'perhaps.' 

But  even  as  a  '  may  be,'  the  thought  of  such  a  know- 
ledge stimulates.  As  all  the  thousand  eyes  of 
assembled  Greece  looked  on  at  the  runners,  and  all  the 


168  HEBREWS  [en.  xii. 

dialects  of  its  states  swelled  the  tumult  of  acclaim 
which  surged  round  the  victor,  so  here  the  general 
assembly  and  Church  of  the  firstborn,  the  festal  gather- 
ing on  Mount  Zion,  into  relations  with  which  this  very 
chapter  says  we  have  come,  may  be  conceived  of  as 
sitting,  solemn  and  still,  on  the  thrones  around  the 
central  throne,  and  bending  not  unloving  looks  of 
earnest  pity  on  the  arena  below  where  they  too  once 
toiled  and  suffered. 

It  may  be  that,  before  their  eyes,  who  have  been 
made  wise  by  death,  and  who,  standing  within  the 
'sanctuary  of  God,  understand  the  end'  of  life  and  life's 
sorrows,  are  manifest  our  struggles,  as  with  w^eary  feet 
and  drooping  limbs  we  blunder  on  in  the  race.  Surely 
there  is  love  in  heaven,  and  it  may  be  there  is  know- 
ledge, and  it  may  be  there  is  care  for  us.  It  may  be 
that,  standing  on  the  serene  shore  beside  the  Lord,  who 
has  already  prepared  a  meal  for  us  with  His  own  hands, 
they  discern,  tossing  on  the  darkened  sea,  the  poor 
little  boats  of  us  downhearted,  unsuccessful  toilers, 
who  cannot  yet  descry  the  Lord,  or  the  welcome  w^hich 
waits  on  the  beach. 

At  all  events  the  thought  may  come  with  cheer  to 
our  hearts,  that,  whether  conscious  of  one  another's 
mode  of  being  or  no,  they  in  their  triumph  and  we  in 
our  toils  are  bound  together  with  real  bonds.  The 
thought,  if  not  the  knowledge,  of  their  blessedness  may 
be  wafted  down  to  us,  just  as  the  thought,  if  not  the 
knowledge,  of  our  labour  may  be  in  their  restful  souls. 
The  hope  of  their  tranquil  shore  may  strengthen  us 
that  are  far  off  upon  the  sea,  though  we  cannot  see 
more  of  it  than  the  dim  lights  moving  about,  and  catch 
an  occasional  fragrance  in  the  air  that  tells  of  land,  just 
as  the  memory  of  their  stormy  voyage  mingles  in  their 


vs.  1,2]    THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES      ICO 

experience  with  their  gladness  because  the  waves  be 
quiet,  and  God  has  brought  them  to  their  desired  haven. 
Such  thoughts  may  come  with  encouragement  for  the 
conflict,  even  if  we  hesitate  to  assert  that  the  cloud  of 
witnesses  is  a  cloud  of  spectators.  What,  then,  is  the 
sense  in  which  these  heroes  of  the  faith  which  the 
previous  chapter  has  marshalled  in  a  glorious  bede- 
roll,  are  'witnesses'?  The  answer  will  be  found  by- 
observing  the  frequent  occurrence  of  the  word,  and  its 
cognate  words,  in  that  chapter.  We  read  there,  for 
instance,  that  the  elders  '  had  witness  borne  to  them ' 
(verse  2,  Revised  Version) ;  that  Abel  by  the  acceptance 
of  his  sacrifice,  'had  witness  borne  to  him  that  he 
was  righteous,' '  God  bearing  witness  in  respect  of  his 
gifts'  (verse  4,  Revised  Version);  that  Enoch  'had 
witness  borne  to  him  that  he  had  been  well  pleas- 
ing unto  God'  (verse  5,  Revised  Version),  and  that 
the  whole  illustrious  succession  'had  witness  borne  to 
them  through  their  faith'  (verse  39,  Revised  Version). 
This  witness  borne  to  them  by  God  is,  of  course,  His 
giving  to  them  the  blessings  which  belong  to  a  genuine 
faith,  whether  of  conscious  acceptance  with  God,  or  of 
inward  peace  and  power,  or  of  outward  victory  over 
sorrows  and  foes.  But  they  become  witnesses  to  us  for 
God  by  the  very  same  facts  by  which  He  makes  Him- 
self the  witness  of  their  faith,  for  they  therein  become 
proofs  of  the  blessedness  of  true  religion,  visible 
evidences  of  God's  faithfulness,  and  their  histories  shine 
out  across  the  centuries  testifying  to  us  in  our  toils 
how  good  it  is  to  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  how  small  and 
transient  are  the  troubles  and  hindrances  that  a  life  of 
faith  meets.  The  calm  stars  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
and  witness  from  age  to  age  of  His  power,  which  keeps 
them  every  one  from  failing ;  and  these  bright  names 


170  HEBREWS  [en.  xii. 

that  shine  in  the  heaven  of  His  word  proclaim  His 
tender  pity,  and  His  rewarding  love  to  all  who,  like  them, 
fight  the  good  fight.  Like  the  innumerable  suns  that 
make  up  the  Milky  Way,  they  melt  into  one  bright 
cloud  til  at  lies  still  and  eternal  above  our  heads  and 
sheds  a  radiance  on  our  dim  struggles.  So  we  have 
here  brought  out  the  stimulus  to  our  Christian  race 
from  the  faith  and  blessedness  of  these  saints. 

We  have  their  history  before  us :  we  know  what  they 
were,  and  we  have  the  'end  of  their  conversation' — 
that  is,  the  issue  or  outcome  of  their  manner  of  life — as 
the  next  chapter  says.  It  was  a  hard  fight,  but  it 
ended  in  victory.  They  had  more  than  their  share  of 
sorrows  and  troubles,  but '  the  glory  dies  not,  and  the 
grief  is  past.'  From  their  thrones  they  call  to  us  words 
of  cheer,  and  point  us  to  their  tears  turned  into 
diamonds,  to  their  struggles  stilled  in  depths  of  repose, 
to  their  wounded  brows  crowned  with  light  and  glory. 

They  witness  to  us  how  mighty  and  divine  a  thing  is 
a  life  of  faith.  Their  human  weakness  was  filled  with 
the  power  of  God.  Tremblings  and  self-distrust  and 
all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to  dwelt  in  them.  Black 
doubts  and  sore  conflicts  were  their  portion.  They,  too, 
knew  what  we  know,  how  hard  it  is  to  live  and  do  the 
right.  But  they  fought  through,  because  a  mightier 
hand  was  upon  them,  and  God's  grace  was  breathed 
into  their  weakness — and  there  they  stand,  victorious 
witnesses  to  us,  that  whosoever  will  put  his  trust  in 
the  Lord  shall  have  strength  according  to  his  need 
inbreathed  into  his  uttermost  weakness,  and  have  One 
by  his  side  in  every  furnace,  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man. 
They  witness  to  us  of  companions  in  suffering,  and  the 
thought  of  them  may  come  to  a  lonely  heart  wading 
in  dark,  deep  waters,  with  the  assurance  that  there  is 


vs.  1,2]    THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES      171 

a  ford,  and  that  others  have  known  the  icy  cold,  and 
the  downward  rush  of  the  stream,  and  have  not  been 
carried  away  by  it.  It  is  not  a  selfish  thought  that 
sometimes  brings  encouragement  to  a  solitary  sufferer, 
'  the  same  afllictions  have  been  accomplished  in  your 
brethren.'  It  helps  us  to  remember  the  great  multitude 
who  before  us  have  come  through  the  great  tribulation 
and  are  before  the  throne.  The  cloud  of  witnesses' 
testify  how  impotent  is  sorrow  to  harm,  how  strong  to 
bless  those  who  put  their  trust  in  God. 

They  witness  to  us  of  the  faithfulness  of  God,  who 
has  led  them,  and  upheld  them,  through  all  their  con- 
flicts, and  has  brought  them  to  His  side  at  last.  That 
wondrous  power  avails  for  us,  fresh  and  young,  as  when 
it  helped  the  world's  grey  fathers.  God  refers  us  to 
their  experiences,  and  summons  them  as  His  witnesses, 
for  they  will  speak  good  of  His  name,  and  each  of  them, 
as  they  bend  down  from  their  seats  around  the  arena, 
calls  to  us,  '  O  love  the  Lord,  all  ye  His  saints.  I  was 
brought  low  and  He  helped  me.'  So  that  we,  taking 
heart  by  their  example,  can  set  ourselves  to  our 
struggles  with  the  peaceful  confidence,  'This  God  is 
our  God  for  ever  and  ever.' 

The  word  rendered  'witnesses'  has  a  narrower 
meaning  in  later  usage,  according  to  which  it  comes 
to  signify  those  who  have  sealed  their  testimony  with 
their  blood,  in  which  sense  it  is  transferred,  untrans- 
lated, into  English,  in  'martyr.'  What  an  eloquent 
epitome  of  the  early  history  of  the  Church  lies  in  that 
one  fact !  So  ordinarily  had  the  faithful  confessor  to 
die  for  his  testimony  that  the  very  name  had  the 
thought  of  a  bloody  death  inextricably  associated  with 
it.  And  if  we  for  a  moment  think  of  that  meaning,  and 
look  back  to  the  long  scries  of  martyrs  from  the  days 


y 


172  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

of  Stephen  to  the  last  Malagasy  Christian  or  missionary, 
what  solemn  scorn  of  soft  delights,  and  noble  contempt 
of  life  itself  may  be  kindled  in  our  souls.  Easy  paths 
are  appointed  to  us.  We  '  have  not  yet  resisted  unto 
blood.'  Let  us  run  our  smoother  race  with  patience,  as 
wo  think  of  those  who  ran  theirs  with  bleeding  feet,  and 
through  the  smoke  of  Smithfield  or  the  dust  of  the  arena 
beheld  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man  stand- 
ing ready  to  help,  and  so  went  to  their  death  with  the 
light  from  His  face  changing  theirs  into  the  same  image. 

But  let  us  not  forget  that  all  these  witnesses  for 
God  were  imperfect  men,  whose  imperfections  are  full 
of  encouragement  for  us.  Look  at  the  names  in  that 
great  muster-roll — Noah  with  his  drunkenness,  Jacob 
with  his  craft,  Samson  with  his  giant  strength  and 
giant  passion,  Jephtha  with  his  savage  faithfulness  to  a 
savage  vow,  David  with  his  too  well-known  sins,  and 
in  them  all  not  one  name  to  which  some  great  evil  did 
not  cling. 

There  are  quickly  reached  limits  to  the  veneration 
with  which  we  are  to  regard  the  noblest  heroes  and 
saints,  and  none  of  them  are  to  be  to  us  patterns,  how- 
ever we  may  draw  encouragement  from  their  lives,  and 
in  some  respects  follow  their  faith.  Thank  God  for 
the  shameful  stories  told  of  so  many  of  them  in  the 
unmoved  narrative  of  Scripture!  They  were  men  of 
common  clay.  The  saints'  halo  is  round  the  head  of 
men  and  women  like  ourselves.  We  look  at  our  own 
sins  and  shortcomings,  and  are  ready  to  despair.  But 
we  may  lift  our  eyes  to  the  cloud  of  witnesses  and  for 
every  evil  of  ours  find  a  counterpart  in  the  earthly 
lives  of  these  radiant  saints.  Thinking  of  our  own 
evil  we  may  hopefully  say,  as  we  gaze  on  them,  'Such 
were  some  of  ye,  but  ye  are  washed,  and  ye  are  sancti- 


vs.  1,2]     THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES      173 

fied.'  Therefore  I  will  not  doubt  but  that  Ho  is  able 
to  keep  me,  even  me,  'from  falling,  and  to  present  me 
faultless  before  tho  presence  of  His  glory.* 

II.  But  we  are  not  left  to  draw  encouragement  from 
the  remembrance  of  men  of  like  passions  with  ourselves 
only.  The  second  of  these  clauses  turns  our  thoughts 
to  the  contrasted  relations  between  Christ  and  us,  and 
the  stimulus  derived  from  it.  '  Looking  unto  Jesus,  the 
author  and  perfecter  of  our  faith.' 

Our  Lord  is  here  very  emphatically  set  in  a  place  by 
Himself  apart  from  all  that  cloud  of  witnesses,  who  in 
their  measure  are  held  forth  as  noble  examples  of 
faith.  All  these,  the  greatest  names  of  old,  are  in  one 
class,  and  He  stands  above  them  in  a  class  of  which  He 
is  the  only  member.  There  we  see  no  other  man  save 
Jesus  only.  Whatever  be  the  inference  from  that 
fact,  the  fact  itself  is  plain.  He  is  something  to  all  the 
fighters  in  the  lists  which  none  of  these  are.  Our  eyes 
may  profitably  dwell  on  them,  but  we  have  to  look 
higher  than  their  serene  seats,  even  to  His  throne,  and 
the  relation  between  us  and  Him  is  altogether  unlike 
that  which  binds  us  to  the  holiest  of  these. 

The  names  He  bears  in  this  context  are  noteworthy, 
'  the  author  and  finisher  of  faith,'  the  former  being  the 
same  word  which,  in  Acts  iii.  15,  is  rendered  '  prince ' 
(of  life),  and  in  this  Epistle  (ii.  10),  '  captain '  (of  salva- 
tion). Its  meaning  may  perhaps  be  best  given  as 
'leader.'  All  these  others  are  the  long  files  of  the 
great  army,  but  Christ  is  the  Commander  of  the  whole 
array.  '  As  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host  am  I  come  up, 
said  the  man  with  the  drawn  sword,  who  stood  before 
Joshua  as  he  brooded  outside  the  walls  of  Jericho  over 
his  task,  and  that  armed  angel  of  the  Lord  was  He  who, 
in  the  fulness  of  time,  took  our  humanity  that  He  might 


174.  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

lead  the  manj'  sons  to  glory.  Not  in  order  of  time,  but 
by  the  precedence  of  nature,  is  He  the  Leader  and  Lord 
of  all  who  live  by  faith. 

He  is  also  the  finisher,  or  more  properly  the  perfecter 
of  faith,  inasmuch  as  He  in  His  own  life  has  shown  ifc 
in  its  perfect  form  and  power;  inasmuch  also  as  He 
gives  to  each  of  us,  if  we  will  have  it,  grace  to  perfect 
it  in  our  lives ;  and  inasmuch  as,  finally,  He  crowns 
and  rewards  it  at  last. 

One  more  remark  as  to  the  force  of  the  language  here 
may  be  allowed.  The  word  rendered  'looking'  is  an 
emphatic  compound,  and  if  full  force  be  given  to  both 
its  elements,  we  might  read  it  'looking  away,'  that  is, 
turning  our  eyes  from  all  other,  even  the  grandest  of 
these  grand  witnesses,  to  gaze  on  Christ  alone. 

All  these  details  serve  to  bring  out  the  unique 
position  which  our  Lord  holds,  and  the  attitude  in 
which  we  should  stand  to  Him. 

Christ  is  the  one  perfect  example  of  faith.  We  are 
familiar  with  the  rest  of  His  perfect  example  in  regard 
to  other  graces  of  the  Christian  character,  but  we 
dwell  less  frequently  than  we  ought  on  Him  as  having 
Himself  lived  a  life  of  faith.  Many  orthodox  believers 
so  believe  in  Christ's  divinity  as  to  weaken  their  sense 
of  the  reality  of  His  manhood,  just  as,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  vivid  apprehension  of  His  manhood  obscures 
to  many  the  rays  of  His  divinity.  We  lose  much  by 
not  making  very  real  to  our  minds  that  Jesus  lived 
His  earthly  life  by  faith,  that  for  Him  as  for  us  de- 
pendence on  God,  and  humble  confidence  in  Him,  were 
the  secret  of  peace,  and  the  spring  of  power.  This 
very  Epistle,  in  another  place,  quotes  the  words  of  the 
psalm,  'I  will  put  my  trust  in  Him,'  as  the  very  inmost 
expression  of  Christ's  life,  and  as  one  of  the  ways  in 


vs.  1,2]    THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES      175 

which  He  proves  His  brotherhood  with  us.  He,  too, 
knows  what  it  is  to  hang  on  Gotl ;  and  is  not  only  in 
His  divine  nature  the  object,  but  in  His  true  manhood 
the  pattern  of  our  faith. 

And  His  pattern  is  perfect.  In  all  others,  even  the 
loveliest  of  saints  and  most  heroic  of  martyrs,  the  gem 
is  marred  by  many  a  streak  of  baser  material,  but  in 
Him  is  the  one  'entire  and  perfect  chrysolite.'  That 
faith  never  faltered,  never  turned  its  gaze  from  the 
things  not  seen,  never  slackened  its.  grasp  of  the  things 
hoped,  nor  degenerated  into  self-pleasing,  nor  changed 
its  attitude  of  meek  submission.  We  may  look  to 
others  for  examples,  but  they  will  all  be  sometimes 
warnings  as  well,  only  to  Jesus  we  may  look  continually 
and  find  unsullied  purity  and  perfect  faith. 

He  is  more  than  example.  He  gives  us  power  to  copy  »/ 
His  fair  pattern.  The  influence  of  heroic,  saintly  lives 
may  be  depressing  as  well  as  encouraging.  Despon- 
dency often  creeps  over  us  when  we  think  of  them.  It 
is  not  models  that  we  want,  for  we  all  know  well 
enough  what  we  ought  to  be,  and  an  exami)le  of 
supreme  excellence  in  morals  or  religion  may  be  as 
hurtful  as  the  unapproachable  superiority  of  Shake- 
speare or  Raphael  may  to  a  young  aspirant.  Perfect 
patterns  will  not  save  the  world.  They  do  not  get 
themselves  copied.  What  we  want  is  not  the  know- 
ledge of  what  we  ought  to  be,  but  the  will  and  the  ^ 
power  to  be  it.  And  that  we  get  from  Christ,  and  from 
Him  alone.  He  stretches  out  His  hand  to  hold  us  up 
in  our  poor  struggles.  His  grace  and  His  peace  come 
into  our  hearts.  Looking  to  Him,  His  Spirit  enters  our 
spirits,  and  we  live,  yet  not  we,  but  Christ  liv^th  in  us. 
Models  will  help  us  little.  They  stand  there  like  sttitues 
on  their  pedestals,  pure  marble  loveliness ;  but  in  Christ 


176  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

the  marble  becomes  flesh,  and  the  lovely  perfection 
has  a  heart  to  pity  and  a  strong  hand  stretched  out 
to  help.  So  let  us  look  away  from  all  others,  who  can 
only  give  us  example,  to  Him  who  can  give  us  strength. 
Turn  from  the  circling  thrones  to  the  imperial  throne 
in  the  centre.  We  are  more  closely  bound  to  Him  who 
sits  on  it  than  to  them.  Look  away  from  the  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses to  the  sun  of  our  souls,  from  whom,  gazing,  we 
receive  warmth  and  light  and  life.  They  may  teach  us 
to  fight,  but  He  fights  in  us.  They  are  patterns  of  faith. 
So  is  He,  but  He  is  also  its  object  and  its  giver. 

Christ  is  the  imperial  Rewarder  of  faith.  At  the 
last  He  will  give  the  full  possession  of  all  which  it  has 
looked  and  hoped  for,  and  will  lift  it  into  the  nobler 
form  in  which,  even  in  heaven,  we  shall  live  by  faith. 
In  that  region  where  struggles  cease,  and  sense  and 
sight  no  longer  lead  astray,  and  we  behold  Him  as  He 
is,  faith  still  abides,  as  conscious  dependence  and  happy 
trust.  It  is  perfected  in  manner,  measure,  and  reward. 
And  Christ  is  the  giver  of  all  that  perfects  it. 

Let  us,  then,  turn  away  our  eyes  from  all  beside,  and 
look  to  Christ.  He  is  the  Reward  as  well  as  the 
Rewarder  of  our  faith.  As  we  look  to  Him  we  shall 
gain  power  for  the  tight,  and  victory  and  the  crown. 
The  gladiators  in  the  arena  lowered  their  swords  to 
the  emperor,  before  they  fought,  with  the  grim  greeting 
*  Hail,  Ca3sar !  the  dying  salute  thee.'  So,  in  happier 
fashion,  our  Lord,  who  has  Himself  fought  in  the  lists 
where  we  now  strive.  Then  we  shall  have  strength  for 
the  conflict,  and  when  the  conflict  is  drawing  to  its  end 
and  all  else  swims  before  our  sight,  and  the  din  grows 
faint  in  our  ears,  we  shall  close  our  eyes  in  peace  ;  and 
when  we  open  them  again,  lo  !  the  bloody  field,  and  the 
broken  sword,  and  the  battered  helm,  have  all  dis- 


vs.  1,2]  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  A  RACE   177 

appeared,  and  we  sit,  crowned  and  pahn-bearin<^,  at 
Ilis  side,  hailed  as  victors,  and  lapped  in  sweetest  rest 
for  ever  more ! 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  A  RACE 

'Let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  sot  before  us.'— Heb.  xii.  1. 

The  previous  clauses  of  this  verse  bring  before  us  the 
runner's  jjosition  as  '  compassed  about  Avitli  a  cloud  of 
witnesses,'  and  his  preparation  as  'lajdng  aside  every 
weight  and  .  .  .  sin.'  The  text  carries  us  a  stage  further 
in  the  metaphor,  and  shows  us  the  company  of  runners 
standing  ready,  stripped,  and  straining  at  the  starting- 
post,  with  the  long  course  stretching  before  thera. 

The  metaphor  of  the  Christian  life  as  a  race  is 
threadbare,  so  far  as  our  knowledge  is  concerned,  but 
it  may  be  questioned  if  it  has  sunk  deeply  enough  into 
the  practice  of  any  of  us.  It  is  a  very  noble  one,  and 
contains  an  ideal  of  the  Christian  life  which  it  would 
do  us  all  good  to  hold  up  by  the  side  of  our  realisa- 
tion of  it.    It  might  stimulate  and  it  would  shame  us. 

What  is  the  special  note  of  that  metaphor?  Com- 
pare with  the  kindred  one,  equally  well-worn  and 
threadbare,  of  a  journey  or  a  pilgrimage.  The  two 
have  much  in  common.  They  both  represent  life  as 
changeful,  continuous,  progressive,  tending  to  an  end  ; 
but  the  metaphor  of  the  race  underscores,  as  it  were, 
another  idea,  that  of  effort.  The  traveller  may  go  at 
his  leisure,  he  may  fling  himself  down  to  rest  under  a 
tree,  he  may  diverge  from  the  road,  but  the  runner 
must  not  look  askance,  must  not  be  afraid  of  dust  or 
sweat,  must  tax  muscle  and  lungs  to  the  utmost,  if, 

M 


178  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

panting,  he  is  to  reach  the  goal  and  win  the  prize.  So, 
very  significantly,  our  writer  here  puts  forward  only 
one  characteristic  of  the  race.  It  is  to  be  '  run  with 
patience,'  by  which  great  word  the  New  Testament 
means,  not  merely  passive  endurance,  noble  and 
difficult  as  that  may  be,  but  active  perseverance  which 
presses  on  unmoved,  ay,  and  unhindered,  to  its  goal 
in  the  teeth  of  all  opposition. 

But,  whilst  that  is  the  special  characteristic  of  the 
metaphor,  as  distinguished  from  others  kindred  to  it, 
and  of  the  ideal  which  it  sets  forth,  I  desire  in  this  sermon 
to  take  a  little  wider  sweep,  and  to  try  to  bring  out  the 
whole  of  the  elements  wliich  lie  in  this  well-worn 
figure.  I  see  in  it  four  things :  a  definite  aim,  clearly 
apprehended  and  eagerly  embraced;  a  God-appointed 
path ;  a  steady  advance ;  and  a  strenuous  effort.  Now 
let  us  ask  ourselves  the  question,  Do  they  correspond 
to  anything  in  my  professing  Christian  life  ? 

We  have  here,  then 

I.  A  definite  aim,  clearly  apprehended  and  eagerly 
embraced. 

Most  men  have  aims,  definite  enough,  in  regard  to 
lower  things,  and  if  you  ask  the  average  man  out  of 
the  ruck  what  he  is  living  for,  he  will  generally  be  able 
to  answer  curtly  and  clearly,  or  at  any  rate  his  life  will 
show,  even  if  he  cannot  put  it  into  Avords.  But  all  these 
are  means  rather  than  ends;  'I  am  living  to  make  a 
big  business.'  '  I  am  living  to  make  a  fortune.'  '  I  am 
living  to  found  a  family.'  'I  am  living  to  learn  a 
science,  an  art,  a  profession.'  *  I  am  living  for  enjoy- 
ment,' etc.,  etc.  Yes,  and  then  suppose  somebody 
perks  up  with  the  exceedingly  inconvenient  further 
question,  '  Well,  and  what  then  ?'  Then,  all  that  fabric 
of    life-aims    rushes    down    into    destruction,    and    is 


v.i]    THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  A  RACE     179 

manifest  for  what  it  is — altogether  disproportionate 
to  the  man  that  is  pursuing  it.  Such  shahby,  im- 
mediate'aims' are  not  worth  calling  so.  But  my  text 
sets  forth  far  beyond,  and  far  above  thom,  the  one  only 
goal  which  it  is  becoming,  which  it  is  natural,  which  it 
is  anything  else  than  ludicrous,  if  it  were  not  so 
tragical,  that  any  mail  shoiild  be  pursuing.  And  what 
is  that  mark?  You  can  put  it  in  a  hundred  different 
ways.  Evangelical  Christian  people  generally  say 
salvation,  and  a  great  many  so-called  Evangelical 
Christian  people  have  a  very  low,  inadequate,  and 
selfish  idea  of  what  they  mean  by  the  word.  Let  us 
put  it  in  another  form.  The  only  aim  that  it  is  worthy 
of  a  man  to  live  for,  as  his  supremo  and  dominant  one, 
is  that  he  shall  be  completely  moulded  in  character, 
disposition,  nature,  heart,  and  will  into  the  likeness  of 
Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  and  that  he 
shall  pass  into  no  Nirvana  of  unconsciousness,  but 
into  that  blessed  union  with  the  divine  nature,  which 
is  not  absorption  into  it,  or  the  weakening  of  the 
individual,  but  the  making  a  man  tenfold  more  himself 
because  he  lives  in  God,  as  the  taper  plunged  into  the 
jar  of  oxygen,  which  burns  the  brighter  for  its  sur- 
roundings, and  unlike  the  taper,  is  unconsumed  by 
burning.  Thus  the  complete  development  of  human 
character  into  the  divine  image,  and  the  complete 
union  of  the  human  with  the  divine,  is  the  aim  that 
Christianity  sets  before  us. 

And  that  aim  it  becomes  every  one  of  us  professing 
Christians  clearly  to  apprehend,  and  keep  ever  in  view 
as  the  thing  to  which  we  are  not  merely  tending,  but 
to  which  we  are  striving.  Clearly  apprehended,  and 
eagerly  embraced,  this  conception  of  the  purpose  of 
our  lives  must  be  if  we  are  not  to  make  them  ignoble 


180  HEBREWS  [en.  xii. 

and  conscious  or  unconscious  hypocrisies.  But  re- 
member that  such  an  aim  may  be  pursued  through, 
and  requires  for  its  attainment,  all  those  lower  aims 
and  ends  which  monopolise  men's  efforts  without 
regard  to  anything  beyond.  What  we  want  most  is 
a  Christianity  which,  recognising  that  great,  supreme 
purpose,  follows  it  jDersistently  and  doggedly  through 
all  nearer  and  lessor  pursuits.  We  want  our  Christian 
principle  to  penetrate  into  all  the  tissues  of  our  lives, 
and  to  bring  there  healing,  purging,  and  quickening. 
And  if  we  suppose  that  the  greatest  of  all  aims  is 
contrary  to  any  of  these  lesser  ones,  except  such  of 
them  as  are  sinful,  then  we  misapprehend  both  the 
highest  blessedness  and  good  of  the  nearest  objects 
that  are  set  before  us,  and  still  more  fatally  mis- 
apprehend the  very  genius  and  intention  of  that 
Christianity,  which  is  not  unworldliness  but  the  secret 
of  making  the  world  and  all  its  fading  sweets  sub- 
servient to  this  highest  end. 

Now,  need  I  say  one  word  as  to  the  nobleness  and 
blessedness  of  a  life  which  is  consistently  and  thoroughly 
ordered  with  a  view  to  this  great  aim  ?  Think  of  the 
unity  that  thus  will  be  blessedly  breathed  over  all  the 
else  bewildering  diversity  of  earthly  conditions  and 
occupations.  As  the  moon  gathers  into  one  great 
tidal  wave  the  heaped  waters  of  the  shoreless  ocean, 
and  mastering  currents,  and  laughing  at  the  opposing 
powers  of  the  tempest,  carries  the  watery  wall  round 
the  earth,  so  the  white,  pure  beam  of  that  aim  shining 
down  on  the  confused  welter  of  our  earthly  life  will 
draw  it  all  after  itself.  Think,  too,  of  the  power  that 
comes  into  a  life  from  this  unity.  A  man  of  one  aim  is 
always  formidable,  and  high  above  all  other  aims  in  its 
absorbing  power  is  this  one  that  a  Christian  man  only 


v.i]     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  A  RACE     181 

deserves  bis  nnmo  if  ho  sets  and  keeps  before  bini. 
Sucb  a  unity  will,  if  I  may  so  say,  gather  together  the 
whole  power  of  our  nature,  and  bring  it  into  a  point, 
and  it  will  heat  it  as  well  as  concentrate  it.  If  you 
take  a  bit  of  blunt  iron,  cold,  and  try  to  bore  a  hole  in 
a  ten-inch  plank,  you  will  make  little  progress ;  but  if 
you  sharpen  it  to  a  point,  and  heat  it  red-hot,  then  it  will 
penetrate  anything.  So  my  life  gathered  up  into  one, 
and  heated,  by  the  very  fact  of  its  being  concentrated, 
will  pierce  through  all  obstacles,  and  I  shall  be  strong 
in  the  proportion  in  which  *  this  one  thing  I  do,'  and  do 
it  through  all  other  things. 

I  need  not  remind  you,  either,  of  the  blessedness 
which  is  involved  in  this  unity  of  aim,  clearly  appre- 
hended and  eagerly  embraced,  in  so  far  as  it  will  act  as 
a  test  of  all  lower  pursuits  and  objects.  Wherever 
there  comes  a  little  rill  of  fresh  water  down  upon  the 
coral  reef  the  creatures  that  build  it  die,  and  the  reef 
disappears,  and  thus  a  great  aim  will  kill  all  lower  ones 
that  work  in  the  dark,  creeping  and  crawling,  and  that 
are  contrary  to  itself.  Further,  this  supreme  aim  is 
supremely  blessed,  because  it  will  shine  ever  before  us. 
There  is  a  blessedness  in  having  an  object  of  pursuit 
which  we  never  reach.  It  is  better  to  steer  straight  to 
the  pole-star,  though  we  never  get  there,  than  to  creep 
like  the  old  mariners,  from  headland  to  headland,  and 
leave  behind  us  sinking  on  the  backward  horizon, 
purpose  after  purpose,  hope  after  hope,  aim  after  aim. 
Better  to  have  it  shining  ahead. 

Let  me  i)oint  out  the  second  idea  contained  in  this 
metaphor,  that  of 

II.  A  God-appointed  path.  The  race  is  *  set  before  us.' 
Set  before  us  by  whom  ?  The  course  is  staked  out  and 
determined  by  the  Judge  of  the  games.    And  that  may 


182  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

well  be  applied  in  two  directions.  My  duties  are 
appointed  by  God,  and  if  only  we  realise  that,  and 
bring  the  thought  of  His  will  continually  into  connec- 
tion with  the  smallest  of  the  acts  which  circumstances, 
relationships,  occupations  and  the  like  constitute  our 
duties,  how  different  they  all  become !  It  is  an  entirely 
different  thing  to  say,  '  Being  where  I  am,  I  must  do 
so-and-so ';  or  'Right  and  wrong  being  what  it  is,  I 
must  do  so-and-so  ' ;  or  to  say, '  This  and  that  man  pre- 
scribes so-and-so  for  me ' ;  and  to  say :  '  Thou  hast  pre- 
pared a  path  for  us,  and  ordained  that  we  should  walk 
therein.'  That  elevates,  that  sweetens,  that  calms  us, 
that  smooths  the  road,  makes  the  rough  places  plain 
and  the  crooked  things  straight.  We  want  with  the 
clear  vision  of  the  aim  the  equally  clear  and  abiding 
persuasion  that  God  has  appointed  the  path.  A  modern 
thinker  said  that  religion  was  morality  touched  by 
emotion.  No,  religion  is  morality  transfigured  into 
obedience  to  the  law  of  God.  Bring  your  duties  into 
connection  with  His  appointment,  and  they  will  all  be 
easy ;  and  when  the  path  stretches  gloomy  before  you, 
and  it  seems  that  you  are  called  upon  to  do  some  hard 
thing,  say :  '  Created  unto  good  works  which  God  hath 
before  ordained  that  we  should  walk  in  them.' 

Then  there  is  the  other  thought  that,  as  the  duties 
are  appointed  by  Him,  so  the  circumstances  are  ap- 
pointed, too.  You  know  what  they  call  an  obstacle- 
race,  in  which  the  intention  is  to  accumulate  as  many 
difficulties  in  the  course  as  can  be  crowded  into  it;  I 
fancy  that  is  a  good  deal  like  the  race  that  is  set  before 
all  of  us,  by  God's  wisdom.  There  are  many  fences  to 
be  climbed,  many  barriers  to  be  crept  under,  many 
deep  ditches  to  be  waded  through,  many  bad  bits  of 
road  studded  with  sharp  points,  through  which  we  have 


V.  1]    THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  A  RACE     18.'3 

to  pick  our  way.  "We  say  as  to  ourselves,  and  as  to  our 
friends,  *  What  does  it  all  mean  ? '  And  the  answer  is, 
*  He  has  set  the  race  before  for  our  profit  that  we  might 
be  partakers  of  His  holiness.' 

Again,  we  have  hero  the  notion  of 

III.  A  stead3^  progress.  Continual  advance  is  the 
very  salt  of  the  Christian  life,  and  unless  there  be  such 
progress  there  is  something  fatally  wrong  with  the 
Christianity.  An  unprogressive  Christianity  is  very 
apt  to  become  a  moribund  and  then  a  dead  Christianity. 
Of  course  that  is  so  because  the  aim  of  which  1  have 
been  speaking  is,  in  its  very  nature,  inaccessible  and 
yet  capable  of  indefinite  approximation.  'Alps  upon 
Alps  arise.'  Neither  in  regard  to  the  intellectual  or 
spiritual  apprehension  of  the  deep  things  of  God,  nor 
in  regard  to  the  incorporation  of  His  likeness  into  itself, 
will  human  nature  ever  be  able  to  say,  'Lo,  I  have 
passed  through  the  land,  and  know  it  all.'  But  an 
indefinite  approximation  to  an  eternally  unreached 
point  is  a  description  of  a  geometrical  figure,  and  it  is 
the  description  of  the  Christian  life.  And,  therefore, 
at  no  point  must  we  stop,  and  at  no  point  is  it  safe  for 
us  to  say,  'I  have  ajjprehended  and  attained.'  Our 
nature,  quite  as  much  as  the  divine  nature  towards 
which  we  tend,  demands  this  continuous  progress,  for 
the  human  spirit  is  capable  of  an  indefinite  expansion, 
and  the  seed  of  the  life  kindred  to  God  which  is  lodged 
in  every  believing  soul,  though  it  be  at  the  beginning 
'less  than  the  least  of  all,'  must  grow  into  a  great 
tree. 

Ah,  brethren  !  what  a  sad  contrast  to  this  unbroken 
progress  our  lives  present  to  our  own  consciousness! 
How  many  Christian  people  there  are  who  have  almost 
lost  sight  of  the  notion,  and  have  certainly  ceased  fronx 


184  HEBREWS  [cn.xn. 

the  practice  of  an  unbroken  advance  in  either  of  the 
directions  of  wliich  I  have  been  speaking,  hkencss  to 
God  or  communion  with  Him  !  Ask  yourselves  the 
question,  'Am  I  further  on  than  I  was  this  day  last 
year,  this  day  ten  years,  this  day  twenty  years?'  The 
Japanese  gardeners  pride  themselves  on  having  the 
secret  of  dwarfing  forest  trees,  and  they  will  put  an 
oak  into  a  flower-pot ;  and  there  it  is,  only  a  few  inches 
high,  in  age  a  patriarch,  in  height  a  seedling.  And  that 
is  what  a  great  many  of  you  Christian  people  are  doing, 
dwarfing  the  tree ;  even  if  you  are  not  distorting  it. 
And  now  the  last  thing  that  I  point  out  here  is 
IV.  The  strenuous  effort.  I  have  already  said  a 
word  or  two  about  that  as  being  the  differentia,  the 
special  characteristic,  of  this  metaphor.  And  I  may 
just  refer  for  one  moment  to  the  fact  that  the  word 
rendered  here  'race,'  and  quite  rightly  so  rendered, 
literally  means  a  contest — '  Let  us  run  the  contest  that 
is  set  before  us.'  What  does  that  say  ?  Why,  just  this, 
that  every  foot  of  advance  has  to  be  fought ;  it  is  not 
merely '  running,'  it  is  conflict  as  well.  And  then,  point- 
ing in  the  same  direction,  comes  the  selection  in  the 
text,  which  I  have  already  touched  upon,  of  the  one 
qualification  that  is  necessary  —  patient  endurance, 
which  suggests  antagonism.  Opposition — where  does 
the  opposition  come  from?  The  Apostle  asked  the 
Galatians  that  once.  'Ye  did  run  well;  what  did 
hinder  you  ? '  And  the  answers  are  diverse :  flowers  by 
the  roadside,  golden  apples  flung  across  the  course, 
siren  voices  tempting  us,  the  force  of  gravity  holding 
us  back,  the  pressure  of  the  wind  on  our  faces.  Yes, 
and  my  own  self  most  of  all.  That  is  what  hinders, 
and  that  is  what  has  to  be  fought  against  by  myself. 
Effort,  effort,  effort  is  the  secret  of  all  noble  life,  in  all 


V.  1]     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  A  RACE     185 

departments,  and  it  is  the  secret  of  advancing  Christian 
life. 

Now,  let  us  understand  aright  the  relations  hetween 
the  faith  of  which  the  New  Testament  makes  so  much 
and  the  effort  of  which  this  metaphor  makes  so  much. 
A  great  many  Christian  people  seem  to  fancy  that 
faith  supersedes  effort.  Not  so!  It  stimulates  and 
strengthens  effort.  If  I  trust,  I  receive  the  power  to 
run,  but  whether  I  shall  really  run  or  not  depends  on 
myself.  God  gives  the  ability  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  then 
we  have  to  use  the  ability,  and  to  turn  it  into  an 
actuality.  They  have  invented  a  movable  platform  at 
the  Paris  Exhibition,  they  tell  me,  on  which  a  man 
steps,  and  having  stepped  upon  it  is  lazily  carried  to  his 
destination  in  the  building  without  lifting  a  foot  or 
moving  a  muscle.  And  some  people  seem  to  think  that 
Christianity  is  a  platform  of  that  sort,  a  '  living  way,'  on 
which,  if  once  they  get,  they  may  be  as  idle  as  they 
like,  and  they  will  reach  their  journey's  end.  Not  so ! 
Not  so  !  By  faith  we  enter  on  the  race ;  through  faith 
we  receive  the  power  that  will  make  us  able  to  run  and 
not  be  weary,  and  to  walk  and  not  faint.  But  unless 
we  run  we  shall  not  advance,  and  unless  we  advance  we 
shall  not  attain.  Understand,  then,  that  faith  is  the 
basis  of  effort,  and  effort  is  the  crown  of  faith.  If  we 
will  thus  trust  ourselves  to  that  Lord,  and  draw  from 
Him  the  power  which  He  is  infinitely  willing  to  give, 
then  the  great  vision  of  the  prophet  will  be  fulfilled  in 
our  case,  and  we  shall  find  stretching  across  the  low, 
swampy  levels  of  this  world  'a  highway,'  and  it  shall 
be  '  a  way  of  holiness,  and  no  ravenous  beast  shall  come 
up  therein,  but  the  redeemed  shall  walk  there,  and  the 
ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return,  and  come  to  Zion 
with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads:  they 


186  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

shall  obtain  joy  and  gladness,  and  sorrow  and  sighing 
shall  flee  away.' 


WEIGHTS  AND  SINS 

'Lot  us  lay  aside  every  weight,  and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily  beset  us.* 

Heb.  xiL  1. 

There  is  a  regular  series  of  thoughts  in  this  clause, 
and  in  the  one  or  two  which  follow  it.  'Let  us  lay 
aside  every  weight,  and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily 
beset  us ;  and  let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is 
set  before  us — looking  unto  Jesus.'  That  is  to  say,  If 
we  would  run  well,  we  must  run  light',  if  we  would  run 
light,  we  must  look  to  Christ.  The  central  injunction 
is,  'Let  us  run  with  patience';  the  only  way  of  doing 
that  is  the  'laying  aside  all  weights  and  sin';  and  the 
only  way  of  laying  aside  the  weights  and  sins  is,  '  look- 
ing unto  Jesus.' 

Of  course  the  Apostle  does  not  mean  some  one  special 
kind  of  transgression  when  he  says, '  the  sin  which  doth 
so  easily  beset  us.'  He  is  speaking  about  sin  generically 
— all  manner  of  transgression.  It  is  not,  as  we  some- 
times hear  the  words  misquoted,  '  that  sin  which  doth 
tnost  easily  beset  us.'  All  sin  is,  according  to  this 
passage,  a  besetting  sin.  It  is  the  characteristic  of 
every  kind  of  transgression,  that  it  circles  us  round 
about,  that  it  is  always  lying  in  wait  and  lurking  for 
us.  The  whole  of  it,  therefore,  in  all  its  species,  is  to  be 
cast  aside  if  we  would  run  with  patience  this  appointed 
race.  But  then,  besides  that,  there  is  something  else 
to  be  put  aside  as  well  as  sin.  There  is  '  every  weight' 
as  well  as  every  transgression— two  distinct  things, 
meant  to  be  distinguished.     The  putting  away  of  both 


v.l]  WEIGHTS  AND  SINS  187 

of  them  is  equally  needful  for  the  race.  The  figure  is 
plain  enough.  Wo  as  racers  must  throw  aside  the 
garment  that  wraps  us  round  — that  is  to  say,  '  the  sin 
that  easily  besets  us' ;  and  then,  besides  that,  we  must 
lay  aside  everything  else  which  weights  us  for  the  race 
— that  is  to  say,  certain  habits  or  tendencies  within  us. 

We  have,  then,  to  consider  these  three  jDoints ;— First, 
There  are  hindrances  which  are  not  sins.  Secondly,  If 
we  would  run,  we  must  put  aside  these.  And  lastly,  If 
we  would  put  them  aside,  we  must  look  to  Christ. 

In  the  first  place,  there  are  hindrances  which  are  not 
sins.  The  distinction  which  the  writer  draws  is  a  very 
important  one.  Sin  is  that  which,  by  its  very  nature, 
in  all  circumstances,  by  whomsoever  done,  without 
regard  to  consequences,  is  a  transgression  of  God's  law. 
A  '  weight'  is  that  which,  allowable  in  itself,  legitimate, 
perhaps  a  blessing,  the  exercise  of  a  power  which  God 
has  given  us — is,  for  some  reason,  a  hindrance  and  im- 
pediment in  our  running  the  heavenly  race.  The  one 
word  describes  the  action  or  habit  by  its  inmost  essence, 
the  other  describes  it  by  its  accidental  consequences.  Sin 
is  sin,  whosoever  does  it ;  but  weights  may  be  weights 
to  me,  and  not  weights  to  you.  Sin  is  sin  in  whatever 
degree  it  is  done ;  but  weights  may  be  \»  eights  when 
they  are  in  excess,  and  helps,  not  hindrances,  when 
they  are  in  moderation.  The  one  is  a  legitimate  thing 
turned  to  a  false  use ;  the  other  is  always,  and  every- 
where, and  by  whomsoever  performed,  a  transgression 
of  God's  law. 

Then,  what  are  these  weights  ?  The  first  step  in  the 
answer  to  that  question  is  to  be  taken  by  remembering 
that,  according  to  the  image  of  this  text  we  carry  them 
about  icith  us,  and  we  are  to  put  them  away  from  our- 
selves.   It  is  fair  to  say  then,  that  the  whole  class  of 


188  HEBTIEWS  [en.  xii. 

weights  are  not  so  much  external  circumstances  which 
may  he  turned  to  evil,  as  the  feelings  and  habits  of 
mind  by  which  we  abuse  God's  great  gifts  and  mercies, 
and  turn  that  which  was  ordained  to  be  for  life  into 
death.  The  renunciation  that  is  spoken  about  is  not  so 
much  the  putting  away  from  ourselves  of  certain  things 
lying  round  about  us,  that  may  become  temptations; 
as  the  putting  away  of  the  dispositions  within  us  which 
make  these  things  temptations.  The  other  is,  of  course, 
inckided  as  well ;  but  if  we  want  to  understand  the  true 
depth  of  the  doctrine  of  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice 
which  is  taught  here,  we  must  remember  that  the  sin 
and  the  weights  alike  lie  within  our  own  hearts — that 
they  are  our  feelings,  not  God's  perfect  gifts — that  they 
are  our  abuse  of  God's  benefits,  not  the  benefits  which 
are  given  to  us  for  our  use.  We  shall  have  to  see, 
presently,  that  by  the  power  which  we  possess  of 
turning  all  these  outward  blessings  of  God's  hands  into 
occasion  for  transgression,  God's  most  precious  endow- 
ments may  become  weights — but  let  us  observe  that, 
accurately  and  to  begin  with,  the  text  enjoins  us  to 
put  away  what  cleaves  to  us,  and  is  in  us,  not  what  is 
lying  round  about  us. 

Then,  if  it  be  mainly  and  primarily,  legitimate  feel- 
ings and  thoughts,  abused  and  exaggerated,  which 
make  the  weights  that  we  are  to  lay  aside,  what  are 
the  things  which  may  thus  become  weights?  Oh, 
brethren  !  a  little  word  answers  that.  Everything.  It 
is  an  awful  and  mysterious  power  that  which  we  all 
possess,  of  perverting  the  highest  endowments,  whether 
of  soul  or  of  circumstances,  which  God  has  given  us, 
into  the  occasions  for  faltering,  and  falling  back  in  the 
divine  life.  Just  as  men,  by  devilish  ingenuity,  can 
distil  poison  out  of  God's  fairest  flowers,  so  we  can  do 


V.  1]  WEIGHTS  AND  SINS  189 

with  everything  that  wo  have,  with  all  the  richest 
treasures  of  our  nature,  with  the  hearts  whicli  lie  has 
given  us  that  we  may  love  Ilim  with  them ;  with  the 
understandings  which  lie  has  bestowed  upon  us,  that 
we  may  apprehend  His  divine  truth  and  His  wonderful 
counsel  with  them;  with  these  powers  of  work  in  the 
world  which  He  has  conferred  upon  us,  that  by  them 
we  may  bring  to  Him  acceptable  service  and  fitting 
offering;  and,  in  like  manner,  with  all  the  gladness 
and  grace  with  which  He  surrounds  our  life,  intending 
that  out  of  it  we  should  draw  ever  occasions  for  thank- 
fulness, reasons  for  trust,  helps  towards  God,  ladders  to 
assist  us  in  climbing  heavenward.  Ah !  and  because  we 
cleave  to  them  too  much,  because  we  cleave  to  them 
not  only  in  a  wrong  degree  but  in  a  wrong  manner  (for 
that  is  the  deepest  part  of  the  fault),  wo  may  make 
them  all  hindrances.  So,  for  instance,  in  a  very  awful 
sense  is  fulfilled  that  threatening,  'A  man's  foes  shall 
be  they  of  his  own  household,'  when  we  make  those 
that  we  love  best  our  idols,  not  because  we  love  them 
too  well,  but  because  we  love  them  apart  from  God; 
when  instead  of  drawing  from  those  that  are  dear  to 
us— our  husbands,  and  wives,  and  children,  and  parents, 
and  friends,  and  every  other  tender  name — lessons  of 
God's  infinite  goodness,  and  reasons  why  our  hearts 
should  flow  perpetually  with  love  to  Him — we  stay 
with  them,  and  hang  back  from  God,  and  forget  that 
His  love  is  best,  His  heart  deepest,  and  His  sufficiency 
our  safest  trust.  That  is  one  single  instance ;  and  as  it 
is  in  that  sacredest  of  regions,  so  is  it  in  all  others. 
Every  blessing,  every  gladness,  every  possession,  exter- 
nal to  us,  and  every  faculty  and  attribute  within 
us,  wo  turn  into  heavy  weights  that  drag  us  down  to 
this  low  spot  of  earth.    We  make  them  all  sharp  knives 


190  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

with   which    we  clip    the   wings  of    our    heavenward 
tendencies,  and  then  we  grovel  in  the  dust. 

And  now,  if  this  be  the  explanation  of  what  the 
Apostle  means  by  'weights' — legitimate  things  that 
hinder  us  in  our  course  towards  God — there  comes  this 
second  consideration.  If  we  would  run  we  must  lay 
these  aside.  Why  must  we  lay  them  aside?  The 
whole  of  the  Christian's  course  is  a  fight.  We  carry 
with  us  a  double  nature.  The  best  of  us  know  that 
*  flesh  lusts  against  spirit,  and  spirit  against  flesh.' 
Because  of  that  conflict,  it  follows  that  if  ever  there  is 
to  be  a  positive  progress  in  the  Christian  race,  it  must 
be  accompanied,  and  made  possible,  by  the  negative 
process  of  casting  away  and  losing  much  that  interferes 
with  it.  Yes!  that  race  is  not  merely  the  easy  and 
natural  unfolding  of  what  is  within  us.  The  way  by 
which  we  come  to  '  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  perfect 
men '  in  Christ,  is  not  the  way  by  which  these  material 
bodies  of  ours  grow  up  into  their  perfectness.  They 
have  but  to  be  nourished,  and  they  grow.  '  The  blade 
and  the  ear,  and  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,'  come  by  the 
process  of  gradual  growth  and  increase.  That  law  of 
growth  is  used  by  our  Lord  as  a  description,  but  only  as 
a  partial  description,  of  the  way  by  which  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  advances  in  the  heart.  There  is  another  side 
to  it  as  well  as  that.  The  kingdom  advances  by  war- 
fare as  well  as  by  growth.  It  would  be  easy  if  it  were 
but  a  matter  of  getting  more  and  more;  but  it  is 
not  that  only.  Every  step  of  the  road  you  have  to  cut 
your  way  through  opposing  foes.  Every  step  of  the 
road  has  to  be  marked  with  the  blood  that  comes  from 
wounded  feet.  Every  step  of  the  road  is  won  by  a 
tussle  and  a  strife.  There  is  no  spiritual  life  without 
dying,  there  is  no  spiritual  growth  without  putting  off 


V.  1]  WEIGHTS  AND  SINS  191 

'  the  old  man  with  his  affections  and  lusts.'  The  hands 
cannot  move  freely  until  the  bonds  be  broken.  The 
new  life  that  is  in  us  cannot  run  with  patience  the 
race  that  is  set  before  it,  until  the  old  life  that  is  in  us 
is  put  down  and  subdued.  And  if  we  fancy  that  we  are 
to  get  to  heaven  by  a  process  of  persistent  growth, 
without  painful  self-sacrifice  and  martyrdom,  we  know 
nothing  about  it.  That  is  not  the  law.  For  every  new 
step  that  we  win  in  the  Christian  course  there  must 
have  been  the  laying  aside  of  something.  For  every 
progress  in  knowledge,  there  must  have  been  a  sacrifice 
and  martyrdom  of  our  own  indolence,  of  our  own  pride, 
of  our  own  blindness  of  heart,  of  our  own  perverseness 
of  will.  For  every  progress  in  devout  emotion,  there 
must  have  been  a  crucifying  and  slaying  of  our  earthly 
affections,  of  our  wavering  hearts  that  are  drawn  away 
from  God  by  the  sweetness  of  this  world.  For  every 
progress  in  strenuous  work  for  God,  there  must  have 
been  a  slaying  of  the  selfishness  which  urges  us  to  work 
in  our  own  strength  and  for  our  own  sake.  All  along 
the  Christian  course  there  must  be  set  up  altars  to  God 
on  which  you  sacrifice  yourselves,  or  you  will  never 
advance  a  step.  The  old  legend  that  the  Grecian  host 
lay  weather-bound  in  tjieir  port,  vainly  waiting  for  a 
wind  to  come  and  carry  them  to  conquest;  and  that 
they  were  obliged  to  slay  a  human  sacrifice  ere  the  / 
heavens  would  be  propitious  and  fill  their  sails, 
may  be  translated  into  the  deepest  verity  of  the 
Christian  life.  We  may  see  in  it  that  solemn  lesson — 
no  prosperous  voyage,  and  no  final  conquest  until  the 
natural  life  has  been  offered  up  on  the  altar  of  hourly 
self-denial.  That  self-denial  must  reach  beyond  gross 
and  unuoubted  sins.  They  must  be  swept  away,  of 
course,  but  deeper  than  these  must  the  sacrificial  knife 


192  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

strike  its  healing  wound.  If  you  would  'run  with 
patience,'  you  must  'lay  aside  every  weight,'  as  well 
as  '  the  sin  which  so  easily  besets  you.' 

So  much  for  the  loliy ;  well,  then,  how  is  this  laying 
aside  to  be  performed  ?  There  are  two  ways  by  which 
this  injunction  of  my  text  may  be  obeyed.  The  one  is, 
by  getting  so  strong  that  the  thing  shall  not  be  a  weight, 
though  we  carry  it ;  and  the  other  is  that  feeling  our- 
selves to  be  weak,  we  take  the  prudent  course  of  put- 
ting it  utterly  aside.  Or,  to  turn  that  into  other  words : 
the  highest  type  of  the  Christian  character  would  be, 
that  we  should,  as  the  Apostle  says,  '  use  the  world 
without  abusing  it'— that '  they  who  possess  should  be 
as  though  they  x^ossessed  not ;  and  they  that  weep,  as 
though  they  wept  not;  and  they  that  rejoice,  as  though 
they  rejoiced  not.'  The  noblest  style  of  a  Christian 
would  be  a  man,  who  exercising  all  the  faculties  which 
God  had  given  him,  and  enjoying  all  the  blessings 
wherewith  God  had  surrounded  him,  walked  his  Chris- 
tian course  like  some  of  those  knights  of  old,  lightly 
bearing  his  heavy  mail,  not  feeling  it  a  burden,  but 
strong  enough  to  bear  the  massive  breastplate  and  to 
wield  the  ponderous  sword,  and  fitted  for  his  rough 
warfare  by  it  all.  It  would  be  possible,  perhaps,  some 
d*iv  for  us  to  come  to  this — that  inasmuch  as  it  is  the 
feelings  within  us  which  make  the  weights,  and  not  the 
objects  without  us  —  we  should  keep  and  enjoy  the 
blessings  and  the  gladness  that  we  possess,  and  yet 
never  thereby  be  thwarted  or  stayed  in  our  journey 
heavenward.  It  would  be  the  highest  condition.  I 
suppose  we  shall  come  to  it  yonder,  where  there  will  no 
longer  be  any  need  to  maim  ourselves  that  we  may 
'  enter  into  life,'  but  where  all  the  maimings  that  were 
done  in  this  world  for  the  sake  of  entering  into  life, 


V.  1]  WEIGHTS  AND  SINS  198 

Bhall  be  compensated  and  restored,  and  each  soul  shall 
stand  perfect  and  complete,  wanting  nothing. 

But,  alas !  though  that  course  be  the  highest,  the 
abstract  best,  the  thing  for  which  we  ought  to  strive 
and  try ;  it  is  not  the  course  for  which  the  weakness 
and  inaptness  of  the  most  of  us  makes  us  strong 
enough.  And  therefore,  seeing  that  we  have  a  nature 
so  weak  and  feeble,  that  temptations  surround  us  so 
constantly,  that  so  many  things  legitimate  become  to 
us  harmful  and  sinful— the  path  of  prudence,  the  safe 
path,  is  absolutely  and  utterly  to  put  them  away  from 
us,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  them. 

Of  course,  there  are  many  duties  which,  by  our  own 
sinfulness,  we  make  weights,  and  we  dare  not,  and  we 
cannot  if  we  would,  lay  the7n  aside.  A  man,  for  instance, 
is  born  into  certain  circumstances,  wherein  he  must 
abide  ;  he  has  '  a  calling  whereunto  he  is  called.'  Your 
trade  is  a  weight,  your  daily  occupations  are  weights. 
The  spirit  of  this  commandment  before  us  is  not,  'Leave 
your  plough,  and  go  up  into  the  mountain  to  pray.' 
Again,  a  man  finds  himself  surrounded  by  friends  and 
domestic  ties.  He  dare  not,  he  must  not,  he  cannot, 
shake  himself  free  from  these.  There  are  cases  in 
which  to  put  away  the  occupation  that  has  become  a 
weight — to  sacrifice  the  blessing  that  has  become  a 
hindrance — to  abstain  from  the  circumstances  which 
clog  and  impede  our  divine  life,  is  a  sin.  Where  God 
sets  us,  we  must  stand,  if  we  die.  What  God  has 
given  us  to  do,  we  must  do.  The  duties  that  in  our 
weakness  become  impediments  and  weights,  we  must 
not  leave. 

But  for  all  besides  these,  anything  which  I  know  has 
become  a  snare  to  me — unless  it  be  something  in  the 
course  of  my  simple  duty,  or  unless  it  be  some  one  of 

N 


194.  HEBREWS  [en.  xn. 

those  relations  of  life  which  I  cannot  get  rid  of —I  must 
have  done  with  it !  It  may  be  sweet,  it  may  be  very 
dear,  it  may  lie  very  near  thy  heart,  it  may  be  a  part 
of  thy  very  being :— never  mind,  put  it  away!  If  God 
has  said  to  you,  There,  my  child,  stand  there,  sur- 
rounded by  temptations ! — then,  like  a  man,  stand  to 
your  colours,  and  do  not  take  these  words  as  if  they 
said — I  am  to  leave  a  jolace  because  I  find  myself  too 
weak  to  resist — a  place  in  which  God,  for  the  good  of 
others  or  for  the  good  of  myself,  has  manifestly  set  me. 
But  for  all  other  provinces  of  life,  if  I  feel  myself  weak 
I  shall  be  wise  to  fly.  As  Christ  has  said, '  If  thy  hand 
offend  thee,'  put  it  down  on  the  block  there,  and  take 
the  knife  in  the  other,  '  and  cut  it  off ' :  it  is  better,  it  is 
better  for  thee  to  go  into  life  with  that  maimed  and 
bleeding  stump,  an  imperfect  man,  than  with  all  thy 
natural  capacities  and  powers  to  be  utterly  lost  at  the 
last!  And  some  of  us,  perhaps,  may  feel  that  these 
solemn  lessons  apply  not  only  to  affection  and  outward 
business.  I  may  be  speaking  to  some  young  man  to 
whom  study,  and  thought,  are  a  snare.  I  know  that  I 
am  saying  a  grave  thing,  but  I  do  say.  In  that  region 
too,  the  principle  applies.  Better  be  ignorant,  and 
saved,  than  wise,  and  lost.  Better  a  maimed  man  in 
Christ's  fold,  than  a  perfect  man,  if  that  were  possible, 
outside  of  it. 

I  know  that  there  is  a  large  field  for  misconception 
and  misapplication  in  the  settlement  of  the  practical 
question — Which  of  my  weights  arise  from  circum- 
stances that  I  dare  not  seek  to  alter,  and  which  from 
circumstances  that  I  dare  not  leave  unaltered  ?  There 
is  a  large  margin  left  for  the  play  of  honesty  of  pur- 
pose, and  plain  common-sense,  in  the  fitting  of  such 
general  maxims  to  the  shifting  and  complicated  details 


V.  1]  WEIGHTS  AND  SINS  195 

of  an  individual  life.  But  no  laws  can  be  laid  down  to 
save  us  that  trouble.  No  man  can  judge  for  another 
about  this  matter.  It  must  be  our  own  sense  of  what 
harms  our  spiritual  life,  and  not  other  people's  notions 
of  what  is  likely  to  harm  either  theirs  or  ours,  that 
guides  us.  What  by  experience  I  find  does  me  harm, 
let  me  give  up  !  No  man  has  a  right  to  come  to  me 
and  say,  There  is  a  legitimate  thing,  an  indifferent 
thing ;  it  is  not  a  sin ;  there  is  not  in  it,  in  itself,  the 
essential  element  of  transgression ;  but  you  must 
forsake  it,  because  it  is  a  weight  to  other  people !  To 
my  own  master  I  stand  or  fall.  The  commandment  is, 
Have  no  weights !  But  the  way  to  fulfil  that  com- 
mandment— whether  by  rejecting  the  thing  altogether, 
or  by  keeping  it,  and  yet  not  letting  it  be  a  weight, 
that  is  a  matter  for  every  one's  own  conscience,  for 
every  one's  own  judgment  and  practical  prudence, 
guided  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  determine.  The 
obedience  to  the  commandment  is  a  simple  matter  of 
loyalty  to  Christ.  But  the  manner  of  obedience  is  to 
be  fixed  by  Christian  wisdom.  And  remember  that  on 
both  sides  of  the  alternative  there  are  dangers.  There 
is  danger  in  the  too  great  freedom  which  says,  I  am 
strong;  I  can  venture  to  do  this  thing — another  man 
cannot — and  I  icill  do  it!  There  is  a  danger  on  the 
other  side  in  saying.  We  are  all  weak,  and  we  will 
forsake  all  these  things  together !  The  one  class  of 
moralists  are  apt  to  confound  their  own  unsanctified 
inclinations  with  the  dictates  of  Christian  freedom. 
The  other  class  are  apt  to  confound  their  own  narrow- 
ness with  the  commandments  of  God.  The  one  class 
are  apt  to  turn  their  liberty  into  a  cloak  of  licentious- 
ness. The  other  class  are  apt  to  turn  their  obligation 
into  a  yoke  which  neither  they  nor  their  disciples  are 


196  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

able  to  bear.  The  Apostle  pointed  out  the  evils  which 
these  two  ways  of  dealing  with  things  indifferent  are 
apt  to  foster  when  he  said  to  those  who  adopt  the  one, 
'  Let  not  him  that  cateth  despise  him  that  eateth  not ' ; 
and  to  those  who  adopt  the  other  '  Let  not  him  which 
eateth  not  judge  him  that  eateth.'  That  is  to  say,  on 
the  one  hand,  beware  of  the  fancied  superiority  to  the 
weaknesses  and  narrowness  of  your  more  scrupulous 
brother,  which  is  prone  to  creep  into  the  hearts  of  the 
more  liberal  and  strong.  Remember  that  perhaps  the 
difference  between  you  is  not  all  in  your  favour.  It 
may  be  that  what  you  call  over-scrupulous  timidity  is 
the  fruit  of  a  more  earnest  Christian  principle  than 
yours;  and  that  what  you  call  in  yourself  freedom 
from  foolish  scruples,  is  only  the  result  of  a  less  sensi- 
tive conscience,  not  of  a  more  robust  Christianity. 
Then  for  the  other  class,  the  lesson  is,  'Let  not  him 
which  eateth  not,  judge  him  that  eateth.'  Judge  not 
from  the  height  of  your  superior  self-denial,  your 
brother  who  allows  himself  what  you  avoid.  Your 
besetting  sin  is  self-righteous  condemnation  of  those 
who  perhaps,  after  all,  are  waser  as  well  as  wider  than 
you,  and  who  in  their  strength  may  be  able  to  walk  as 
near  to  God  on  a  road,  which  to  you  would  be  full  of 
perils,  as  you  are  in  the  manner  of  life  which  you  know 
to  be  needful  for  you.  Let  us  all  remember,  besides, 
that  a  thing  which  to  ourselves  is  no  w^eight,  may  yet  be 
right  for  us  to  forsake,  out  of  true  and  tender  brotherly 
regard  to  others  who,  weaker  than  we,  or  perhaps  more 
conscientious  than  we,  could  not  do  the  same  thing 
without  damaging  their  spirits  and  weakening  their 
Christian  life.  '  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith,  receive.' 
Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith,  help.  And  in  all  these 
matters  indifferent,  which  are  weights  to  one  and  not 


V.  1]  WEIGHTS  AND  SINS  197 

weights  to  another,  let  us  remember,  first,  for  our- 
selves, that  a  weight  retained  is  a  sin ;  and  let  us 
remember,  next,  for  others,  that  they  stand  not  by 
our  experience,  but  by  their  own;  and  that  we  are 
neither  to  judge  their  strength,  nor  to  offend  their 
weakness. 

And  now,  in  the  last  place:  This  laying  aside  of 
every  weight  is  only  possible  by  looking  to  Christ. 
That  self-denial  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  has  in 
it  no  merit,  no  worthiness.  The  man  that  practises  it 
is  not  a  bit  better  than  the  man  that  does  not,  except 
in  so  far  as  it  is  a  preparation  for  greater  reception 
of  the  spiritual  life.  Some  people  suppose  that  when 
they  have  laid  aside  a  weight,  conquered  a  hindrance, 
given  up  some  bad  habit,  they  have  done  a  meritorious 
thing.  Well,  we  are  strengthened,  no  doubt,  by  the 
very  act;  but  then,  it  is  of  no  use  at  all  except  in  so 
far  as  it  makes  us  better  fitted  for  the  positive  progress 
which  is  to  come  after  it.  What  is  the  use  of  the  racer 
betaking  himself  to  the  starting-post,  and  throwing 
aside  every  weight,  and  then  standing  still  ?  He  puts 
aside  his  garments  that  he  may  7^un.  We  empty  our 
hearts;  but  the  empty  heart  is  dull,  and  cold,  and 
dark :  we  empty  our  hearts  that  Christ  may  fill  them. 

That  is  not  all:  Christ  must  have  begun  to  fill  /of 
before  we  can  empty  them.  '  Looking  to  Jesus/ar  of 
only  means  of  thorough-going,  absolute  i-,  and  of 
All  other  surrender  than  that  which  is  -'  Ye  shall 
love  to  Him,  and  faith  in  Him,  is  but  suwitnesses.' 
and  drives  the  subtle  disease  to  the  vita.U  are  only 
that  tries,  by  paring  off  an  excrescence  hes  the  great 
up  a  bad  habit  there,  to  hammer  and  tireturn,  '  He 
himself  into  the  shape  of  a  true  and  perfen  Him  go.' 
do  it  outwardly.    He  will  scarcely  dopect.    It  is  a 


198  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

possible  he  may  partially.  And  then,  what  has  he 
made  himself?  *A  whited  sepulchre';  outside, — 
adorned,  beautiful,  clean;  inside, — full  of  rottenness 
and  dead  men's  bones!  The  self  that  was  beaten  in 
the  open  field  of  outward  life,  retires,  like  a  defeated 
army,  behind  broad  rivers;  and  concentrates  itself  in 
its  fortresses,  and  prepares  hopefully  for  a  victorious 
resistance  in  the  citadel  of  the  heart. 

My  brother,  if  you  would  '  run  with  patience  the  race 
that  is  set  before  you,'  you  must  'lay  aside  every 
weight.'  If  you  would  lay  aside  every  weight,  you 
must  look  to  Christ,  and  let  His  love  flow  into  thy  soul. 
Then,  self-denial  will  not  be  self-denial.  It  will  be 
blessing  and  joy,  sweet  and  easy.  Just  as  the  old 
leaves  drop  naturally  from  the  tree  when  the  new 
buds  of  spring  begin  to  put  themselves  out,  let  the 
new  affection  come  and  dwell  in  thy  heart,  and  expel 
the  old.  'Lay  aside  every  weight'  —  'looking  unto 
Jesus.'  Then,  too,  you  will  find  that  the  sacrifice  and 
maiming  of  the  old  man  has  been  the  perfecting  of 
the  man.  You  will  find  that  whatever  you  give  up 
for  Christ  you  get  back  from  Christ,  better,  more 
beautiful,  more  blessed,  hallowed  to  its  inmost  core, 
•^  joy  and  a  possession  for  ever.  For  He  will  not  suffer 
^^"-  any  gift  laid  upon  His  altar  shall  not  be  given 
perils..^  us.  He  will  have  no  maimed  man  in  His 
to  be  nvc,^^  ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^^  j^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^j^^^^  jg 

that  a  thin  ^  ^j^^  possessions  that  are  rendered  up,  the 
right  loi  ui  ^^  slain — they  are  all  given  back  to  us 
regard  to  o  ^^  ^^^^^  -^  ^.^^.g  ^^^^  jj^j^^  j^  glory— 
conscientioi  ^^^^  ^^^^^  ^^^^  image  of  Christ,  and  sur- 
witnou  ^  ^jj  possessions  transfigured  and  glorified 

Christian  lu^^  q,^^  'There  is  no  man  that  hath  left 
Him  that  is  ^^^^  ^^  brethren,  or  wife,  or  children,  for 
matters  indill 


V.  1]       THE  PERFECTER  OF  FAITH        199 

the  kingdom  of  God's  sake,  who  shall  not  receive  mani- 
fold more  in  this  present  time,  and  in  the  world  to 
come  life  everlasting. 


THE  PERFECTER  OF  FAITH 

•Set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God.'— Heb.  xii.  2. 

St.  Luke  gives  us  two  accounts  of  the  Ascension,  one 
at  the  end  of  his  Gospel  and  one  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Acts.  The  difference  of  position  suggests  delicate 
shades  of  colouring  and  of  distinction  in  the  two 
narratives,  the  one  is  the  ending  of  the  sweet  inter- 
course on  earth,  the  other  is  the  beginning  of  a  new 
era  and  a  different  type  of  companionship.  So  in  that 
which  closes  the  Gospel,  emphasis  is  put  upon  our 
Lord's  ascension  as  being  parted  from ;  and  all  that  is 
told  us  is  of  the  final  benediction  befitting  a  farewell, 
and  of  the  uplifted  hands,  which  left  upon  their  minds 
the  last  sweet  impression  of  the  departing  friend.  But 
if  we  turn  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  where  the 
incident  is  the  same,  the  whole  spirit  of  the  narrative 
is  altered.  We  see  there  the  beginning  of  a  new  era, 
and  so  we  read  nothing  about  parting,  but,  instead  of 
the  indefinite  expression,  He  blessed  them,  we  hear  of 
their  promised  investiture  with  a  new  power,  and  of 
there  being  laid  upon  them  a  new  obligation — '  Ye  shall 
be  clothed  with  the  Spirit :  ye  shall  be  My  witnesses.' 
And  the  two  men  who  stand  by  them,  and  are  only 
mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Acts,  announce  the  great 
thought,  that  the  departing  Christ  will  return,  '  He 
shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  Him  go.' 
All  in  that  account  has  a  forward  aspect.    It  is  a 


200  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

beginning  with  a  new  power,  strengthened  by  a  new 
duty,  and  having  a  far-oir  hope.  Thus  equipped,  these 
eleven  no  more  feel  that  their  Lord  is  parted  from 
them,  nor  that  they  are  abandoned  and  forlorn;  but 
they  cast  themselves  into  their  new  circumstances,  and 
joyfully  take  up  their  new  work.  So  the  Ascension  of 
Christ  is  represented  in  that  second  account  as  being 
the  transition  from  the  earthly  to  the  heavenly  life 
and  type  of  communion  with  Ilim,  and  as  the  prepara- 
tion for  that  great  fact  which  my  text  enshrines  in 
highly  figurative  language,  as  being  the  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God.  The  Ascension  is  no 
transient  fact,  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  permanent 
condition  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  permanent  present 
relations  between  Jesus  Christ,  God,  the  Church,  and 
the  world.  So  I  desire  to  turn  now  to  the  various 
characteristics  of  the  present  and  permanent  relation- 
ship of  Jesus  Christ  to  these  three — God,  the  Church, 
the  world. 

And  first  of  all  I  wish  to  notice  we  have  here  the 
thought  of  the  Enthroned  Christ.  The  attitude  of 
sitting  indicates  repose.  The  position  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  throne  of  God  indicates  participation  in 
the  divine  energies  and  in  the  administration  of  the 
divine  providences.  But  the  point  to  observe  is  that  the 
Ascension  is  declared  to  be  the  prerogative  of  the  Man 
Christ  Jesus,  And  so  with  great  emphasis  and  signifi- 
cance, in  the  verse  with  a  part  of  which  I  am  now 
dealing,  we  have  brought  together  the  name  of  the 
humanity,  the  name  that  was  borne  by  many  another 
Jew  in  the  same  era  as  Jesus  bore  it,  we  have  brought 
together  the  name  of  the  humanity  and  the  affirmation 
of  the  divine  dignity,  '  We  see  Jesus  .  .  .  set  down  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God.'    And  over  and 


V.2]       THE  PERFECTER  OF  FAITH       201 

over  again,  not  only  in  this  Epistle,  but  in  other  parts 
of  Scripture,  we  have  the  same  intentional,  emphatic 
juxtaposition  of  the  two  ideas  which  shallow  thinkers 
regard  as  in  some  sense  incompatible — the  humanity 
and  the  divinity. 

Remember,  for  instance,  *  this  same  Jesus  shall  so 
come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  Him  go.'  And 
remember  the  rapturous  and  wonderful  exclamation 
which  broke  from  the  lips  of  the  proto-martyr. 
'Behold,  I  see  the  heavens  opened  and  the  Son  of  Man 
standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God.'  So  then  that 
exaltation  and  ascension  is — according  to  New  Testa- 
ment teaching,  which  is  not  contradicted  by  the  deepest 
thought  of  the  affinities  and  resemblances  of  the  divine 
and  the  human — the  lifting  up  of  the  Man  into  the 
glory  which  the  Incarnate  Word  had  with  the  Father 
before  the  world  was.  And  just  as  the  earthly  life  of 
that  Incarnate  Word  has  shown  how  divine  a  thing 
a  human  life  here  may  be,  so  the  heavenly  life  of  the 
still  Incarnate  Word  shows  us  what  our  approximation 
to,  and  union  with,  the  divine  nature  may  be,  when 
we  are  purged  and  perfected  in  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
whither  the  Forerunner  is  for  us  entered. 

But  furthjer,  in  addition  to  this  thought,  there  comes 
another  which  is  constantly  associated  with  the  teaching 
of  this  session  of  the  Son  of  Man  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  namely,  that  it  is  intercessory.  That  is  a  word  the 
history  of  which  will  take  us  far,  and  I  dare  not  enter 
upon  it  now.  But  one  thing  I  wish  to  make  very 
emphatic,  and  that  is  that  the  ordinary  notion  of  inter- 
cession is  not  the  New  Testament  notion.  We  limit  it, 
or  tend  to  limit  it,  to  prayer  for  others.  There  is  no 
such  idea  in  the  New  Testament  use  of  the  phrase.  It 
is  a  great  deal  wider  than  any  verbal  expression  of 


202  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

sympathy  and  desire.  It  has  to  deal  with  realities  and 
not  with  words.  It  is  not  a  synonym  for  asking  for 
another  that  some  blessing  may  come  upon  him;  but 
the  intercession  of  tlio  great  High  Priest  who  has  gone 
into  the  holiest  of  all  for  us  covers  the  whole  ground 
of  the  acts  by  which,  by  reason  of  our  deep  and  true 
union  with  Jesus  Christ  through  faith,  He  communi- 
cates to  His  children  whatsoever  of  blessing  and  power 
and  sweet  tokens  of  ineffable  love  He  has  received  from 
the  Father.  Whatsoever  He  draws  in  filial  dependence 
from  the  Divine  Father  He  in  brotherly  unity  imparts 
to  us ;  and  the  real  communication  of  real  blessing, 
and  not  the  verbal  petitions  for  forgiveness,  is  what 
He  is  doing  there  within  the  veil.  '  He  is  able  to  save 
them  to  the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by  Him, 
seeing  He  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  them.' 

But  still  further  in  this  great  figure  of  my  text,  the 
Enthroned  Christ,  there  lies  a  wondrous  thought  which 
He  Himself  has  given  us,  '  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you.'  What  activities  are  involved  in  that  wondrous 
idea  it  boots  us  not  to  inquire,  nor  would  it  become  us 
to  say.  We  know  that  never  could  we  tread  those 
pure  pavements  except  our  robes  and  our  feet  had 
been  washed  by  Him.  But  that  is  the  consequence  of 
His  earthly  work,  and  not  of  His  heavenly  and 
present  energy.  Perhaps  in  our  ignorance  of  all  that 
lies  behind  the  veil,  we  can  get  little  further  than  to 
see  that  the  very  fact  of  His  presence  is  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  place.  For  that  awful  thought,  that 
crushing  thought,  of  eternal  life  under  conditions 
bewilderingly  different  from  anything  we  experience 
here,  would  be  no  joy  unless  we  could  say  we  shall  see 
Him  and  be  with  Him.  I  know  not  how  it  may  be  with 
you,  but  1  think  that  the  nearer  we  come  to  the  end  of 


v.2j       THE  PERFECTER  OF  FAITH        203 

the  earthly  life,  and  the  more  the  realities  beyond 
begin  to  press  upon  our  thoughts  and  our  imaginations 
as  those  with  which  we  shall  soon  make  acquaintance, 
we  feel  more  and  more  how  unquestionable  the  misery 
the  thought  of  eternal  life  would  bring  if  it  were 
not  for  the  fact  that  the  world  beyond  is  lighted  up 
and  made  familiar  by  the  thought  of  Christ's  presence 
there.  Con  you  fancy  some  poor  clod-hopping  rustic 
brought  up  from  a  remote  village  and  set  down  all  in 
a  moment  in  the  midst  of  some  brilliant  court?  How 
out  of  place  he  would  feel,  how  unhomelike  it  would 
appear,  how  ill  at  ease  he  would  be ;  ay,  and  what  an 
unburdening  there  would  be  in  his  heart,  if  amongst  the 
strange  splendour  he  detected  beneath  the  crown  and 
above  the  robes,  sitting  on  the  throne,  one  whom  he 
had  known  in  the  far-off  hamlet,  and  who  there  had 
taken  part  with  him  in  all  the  ignoble  toils  and  narrow 
interests  of  that  rustic  scene.  Jesus  said,  '  I  go  to  pre- 
pare a  place  for  you,'  and  when  I  lift  up  my  eyes  to 
those  far-off  realities  which  overwhelm  me  when  I  try 
to  think  about  them,  I  say,  I  am  not  dazzled  by  the 
splendour,  I  am  not  oppressed  by  the  perpetuity  of  it, 
I  do  not  faint  at  the  thought  of  unlike  conditions,  for 
T  shall  be  the  same  and  He  will  be  with  me. 

•  It  is  enough  that  Christ  knows  all, 
And  I  shall  be  with  Him.' 

And  so  the  Enthroned  Christ  is  preparing  a  place  for 
us.  Ay,  brethren,  and  He  is  not  preparing  it  for  us 
only  when  we  die,  but  He  is  preparing  it  for  us  whilst 
we  live ;  for  it  is  only  by  faith  in  Him  that  we  have 
boldness  of  access  and  confidence.  And  neither  for  the 
prayers  and  desires  of  Christian  men  on  earth  nor  for 
the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  hereafter  will  the 


204  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

eternal  golden  gates  swing  open  except  His  band  is  on 
the  bolt,  and  by  His  power  the  way  into  the  Holiest  is 
made  manifest.  And  so  set  your  minds  as  well  as  your 
affections  on  the  things  above,  where  Christ  is  sitting 
on  the  right  hand  of  God. 

Now,  secondly,  we  have  here  the  Present  Christ. 
Matthew,  in  his  Gospel,  does  not  tell  of  the  Ascension, 
but  he  preserves  the  promise,  'Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world,'  and  that  promise 
is  not  contradicted,  but  is  realised  by  the  fact  of  Christ's 
ascension.  He  does  tell  us  of  the  remarkable  utterance 
to  Mary  on  the  morning  of  the  Resurrection.  '  Touch  Me 
not,  for  I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  My  Father.'  The 
implication  that  we  have  plainly  is,  when  I  am  ascended 
you  may  touch.  And  the  contact  of  even  her  nervous 
and  clutching  hand  round  His  feet  is  less  than 
the  touch  and  the  presence  for  which  that  dej)arture 
makes  the  way.  'He  was  parted  from  them'  is  the 
thought  that  ends  the  Gospel.  He  was  parted  for 
a  season  that  thou  mightest  receive  Him  for  ever,  is 
the  thought  that  begins  the  Acts  and  the  history  of  the 
Church.  And  it  is  true  of  Him  and  His  relation  to 
us,  and  because  it  is  true  about  Him  and  about  His 
relation  to  us,  it  is  also  true  about  all  those  who 
sleep  in  Jesus.  Their  relation  towards  the  earthly 
form  ceases,  and  there  is  an  empty  place  where  they 
once  stood. 

But  there  is  a  presence  more  real  and  capable  of 
yielding  finer  influences,  strengthening  and  sanctifying, 
than  ever  came  from  the  earthly  presence.  It  is  blessed 
to  clasp  hands,  it  is  blessed  to  link  arms,  it  is  blessed  to 
press  together  the  lips  ;  but  there  is  a  higher  touch 
than  these,  and  sight  is  a  less  clear  vision  than  faith ; 
and  they  who  can  pass  across  the  abyss  of  the  centuries 


V.2]       THE  PERFECTEU  OF  FAITH       205 

and  the  yet  broader  and  deeper  and  blacker  abyss 
between  earth  and  heaven,  and  lay  the  hand  of  faith 
on  the  hand  of  Christ,  have  passed  through  the  veil, 
that  is  to  say  His  flesh,  and  have  clasped  His  real 
presence.  Yes,  and  the  thing  that  calls  itself  such,  is 
but  a  part  of  the  general  retrogression  of  Catholicism 
to  heathenism  and  materialism.  We  have  the  real 
presence  if  we  have  the  Christ  in  our  heart  by  faith. 
He  is  present  with  us;  enthroned  on  high  above  all 
heavens,  He  yet  is  near  the  humblest  heart,  the  com- 
panion of  the  lonely,  the  solace  of  all  that  trust  Him. 
'  He  trod  the  winepress  alone,'  in  order  that  none  of  us 
need  ever  live  alone  or  die  alone. 

And  there  is  another  side  to  this  presence.  As  I  have 
said,  He  is  present  with  us  here,  and  you  and  I  may  be 
present  W' ith  Him  yonder ;  for  one  of  the  Epistles  tells 
us  that,  'we  die  with  Him  that  we  may  live  with  Him, 
and  that  God  has  quickened  us  (if  we  are  Christian 
people)  together  with  Him  and  made  us  sit  together 
with  Him  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus.'  Your 
life.  Christian  men  and  women,  is  in  its  roots  and 
sources,  and  ought  to  be  in  its  flow  and  course,  'hid 
with  Christ  in  God,'  and  you  should  not  only  seek  to 
realise  the  presence  of  the  Master  with  you,  but  to 
climb  to  Himself,  being  present  with  Him. 

Thirdly,  this  great  figure  of  my  text  sets  before 
us  the  working  Christ.  The  attitude  of  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  God  suggests  repose;  but  that  is  a  re- 
pose which  is  consistent  with,  and  is  accompanied  by, 
the  greatest  energy  for  continuous  operation.  You 
remember,  no  doubt  (although,  perhaps,  not  in  its  full 
significance),  the  great  words  with  which  the  close  of  St. 
Mark's  Gospel  points  on  to  the  future, '  So  then,  after  the 
Lord  had  spoken  unto  them,  He  was  received  up  into 


206  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right  hand  of  God.  And  they 
went  everywhere  preaching  the  word.'  Tlie  Master 
gone,  the  servants  left ;  the  Master  resting,  the  servants 
journeying  and  toiling.  It  is  like  the  two  halves  of 
Raphael's  great  transfiguration  picture.  The  Lord  and 
the  three  are  up  there  in  the  amber  light,  the  demoniac 
boy  writhing  in  his  convulsions,  and  the  disciples  by 
him  helpless,  down  here.  The  gap  is  great.  Yes. 
'  They  went  everywhere  preaching  the  Word,  the  Lord 
also  working  with  them,  and  confirming  the  Word  with 
signs  following.'  There  is  the  true  notion  of  the  repose 
of  Christ  resting  indeed  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  yet 
working  with  His  servants  scattered  over  the  face  of 
the  earth.  And  so  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  the  keynote  is  struck  when  St.  Luke  says, 
'  The  former  treatise  have  I  made  of  all  that  Jesus 
began  both  to  do  and  to  teach  until  the  day  on  which 
He  was  taken  up ' ;  and  this  treatise,  O  Theophilus,  is 
the  second  volume  of  the  one  story,  the  history  of  all  that 
Jesus  continued  both  to  do  and  to  teach  after  the  day 
on  which  He  was  taken  up.  Acts  of  the  Apostles? 
No ;  Acts  of  the  Ascended  Christ — that  is  the  name  of 
the  book.  Never  mind  about  the  apostles.  They  do 
come  into  the  foreground;  but  the  writer  has  little 
care  about  them.  It  is  the  Christ  who  is  moving ;  and 
so  we  find  it  all  through  the  book,  the  Lord  did  this,  the 
Lord  did  that,  the  Lord  did  the  other  thing ;  and  the 
apostles  are,  I  was  going  to  say,  the  pawns  on  the 
chess-board.  And  so  you  remember,  too,  that  dying 
Stephen  saw  the  Son  of  Man  standing  at  the  right 
hand  of  God.  He  sprang  to  his  feet,  not  breaking  the 
eternal  repose,  to  look  down  and  to  send  down  help 
and  sustenance  and  blessing  and  good  cheer  to  the  man 
there  at  the  foot  of  the  old  wall  ready  to  die  for  Him. 


V.2]       THE  PERFECTER  OF  FAITH        207 

And  that  is  the  type  of  the  whole  history  of  the 
Church.  I  have  said  that  Christ's  Ascension  is  the 
transition  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  form  of 
presence;  and  it  is  the  transition  to  the  wider  form  of 
work.  He  works  for  us,  on  us,  in  us,  and  with  us,  and 
as  the  apostle  Peter  said  in  expounding  the  significance 
of  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  '  Being  to  the  right  hand  of 
God  exalted  He  hath  shed  forth  this,'  so  the  Christ 
is  no  longer  tired,  but  is  still  working,  working  in  us, 
with  us,  and  for  us. 

And  lastly,  the  metaphor  of  my  text  brings  before  us 
the  returning  Christ.  It  was  not  only  the  angel's 
message  that  declared  that  departure  and  ascension 
were  not  the  last  that  the  worker  was  going  to  see  of 
Jesus.  The  necessities  of  the  case,  if  I  may  say  so,  tell 
us  the  same  message.  The  Incarnation  necessarily 
involves  the  Crucifixion ;  the  Crucifixion  (if  it  is  what 
we  believe  it  to  be)  as  necessarily  involves  the  Resurrec- 
tion, '  for  it  was  not  possible  that  He  should  be  holden  of 
it,'  the  grim  death.  The  Resurrection  and  the  Ascension 
are  but  as  it  were  the  initial  point,  which  is  produced 
into  the  line  of  His  heavenly  session.  It  cannot  be 
that  Ascension  is  the  last  word  to  be  said.  The  path 
of  the  King  does  not  run  into  a  cul  de  sac  like  that. 
The  world  has  not  done  with  Jesus  Christ.  He  is 
coming,  was  the  great  thought  around  which  all  the  past 
clustered.  He  will  come,  is  the  great  hope  around  whicli 
all  the  future  hopes  for  the  Church  and  the  world  are 
piled  and  built.  '  He  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as 
ye  have  seen  Him  go,'  corporeally,  visibly,  locally,  in 
His  manhood,  in  His  divinity.  'As  He  was  once  offered 
to  bear  the  sin  of  many,  so  shall  He  come  the  second 
time  without  sin  unto  salvation.'  Brethren,  that  is  the 
hope  of  the  Church,  discredited  by  many  unworthy 


208  HEBREWS  [ch.  xil 

representations  and  mixed  up  with  a  great  deal  that 
does  not  commend  it  by  the  folly  of  those  who  believe 
in  it;  but  standing  out  so  distinct  and  so  required  by 
all  that  is  gone  before,  that  no  Christian  man  can 
afford  to  relegate  the  expectation  into  the  region  of 
dimness,  or  to  waver  in  his  faith  in  it,  without  much 
imperilling  his  conception  of  his  Master,  and  the 
blessedness  of  union  with  Him.  You  do  not  understand 
the  Cross  unless  you  believe  in  the  throne ;  and  you  do 
not  understand  the  throne  unless  you  believe  in  the 
judgment-seat.  The  returning  Christ  shall  judge  the 
world.  Brethren !  Jesus  is  enthroned.  Do  you  bow  to 
His  command?  Do  you  trust  His  power?  Do  you  see 
in  Him  the  pattern  of  what  you  may  be,  and  the  pledge 
that  you  will  be  it  if  you  put  your  confidence  in  your 
Lord?  The  enthroned  Christ  is  present.  Do  you 
walk  in  blessed  and  continuous  communion  with 
Him?  The  enthroned  and  present  Christ  is  working. 
Do  you  trust  in  His  operation,  peacefully,  for  yourself, 
for  the  Church,  for  the  world?  Do  you  open  your 
heart  to  the  abundant  energies  with  which  He  is  flood- 
ing His  Church,  and  which  His  Church  is  so  sadly 
and  so  much  allowing  to  run  to  waste?  The  en- 
throned, present,  working  Christ  is  coming  back,  and 
you  and  I  have  to  choose  whether  we  shall  be  of  'the 
servants  whom  the  Lord,  when  He  cometh,  shall  find 
watching,'  and  obeying  His  command  with  girt  loins  and 
lit  lamps,  and  so  will  sweep  with  Him  into  the  festal 
hall,  and  sit  down  with  Him,  on  His  throne ;  or  whether 
we  shall  wail  because  of  Him,  and  shrink  abashed  from 
the  judgment-seat  of  Christ. 


RESISTING  UNTO  BLOOD 

•Te  have  not  yet  resisted  unto  blood,  striving  against  sin.'— Hkb.  xii.  4. 

*Ye  have  not  yet  resisted' — then  others  had  done  so; 
and  the  writer  bids  his  readers  contrast  their  own  com- 
parative immunity  from  persecution  from  the  fate  of 
such,  in  order  that  they  may  the  more  cheerfully  do 
the  easier  task  devolved  upon  them.  Who  were  those 
others  ? 

If  the  supposition  of  many  is  correct  that  this  Epistle 
was  addressed  to  the  Mother  Church  at  Jerusalem,  the 
fate  of  Stephen  the  first  martyr,  and  of  James  the 
brother  of  John,  who  had  'had  the  rule  over'  that 
Church,  may  have  been  in  the  writer's  mind.  If  the 
date  assigned  to  the  letter  by  some  is  accepted,  the 
persecution  vmder  Nero,  which  had  lighted  the  gardens 
of  the  Capitol  with  living  torches,  had  already 
occurred;  and  the  writer  may  have  wished  the 
Jerusalem  Church  to  bethink  themselves  that  they  had 
fared  better  than  their  brethren  in  Rome.  But  whether 
these  conjectures  are  adopted  or  no,  there  is  another 
contrast  evidently  in  the  writer's  mind.  He  has  been 
speaking  of  the  long  series  of  heroes  of  the  faith,  some 
of  whom  had  been  '  stoned  and  sawn  asunder,'  and  he 
would  have  the  Christians  whom  he  addresses  contrast 
their  position  with  that  of  these  ancient  saints  and 
martyrs.  And  there  is  another  contrast  more  touching 
still,  more  wonderful  and  impressive,  in  his  mind ;  for 
my  text  follows  immediately  upon  a  reference  to  Jesus 
Christ,  *  who  endured  the  Cross,  despising  the  shame.' 
So  Himself  'had  resisted  unto  blood.'  And  thus  the 
writer  bids  his  readers  think  of  the  martyrs  in  the 
Mother  Church;    of  the  blood  that  had  deluged  the 

O 


210  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

Church  at  Rome;  of  the  slaughtered  saints  in  past 
generations;  and,  above  all,  of  the  great  Captain  of 
their  salvation;  and,  animated  by  the  thoughts,  man- 
fully to  bear  and  mightily  to  resist  in  the  conflict  that 
is  laid  upon  them.  'Ye  have  not  yet  resisted  unto 
blood,  striving  against  sin.' 

I.  So  then,  we  have  here,  to  begin  with,  the  perma- 
nent condition  of  the  Christian  life,  as  one  of  warfare 
and  resistance. 

The  imagery  of  the  whole  context  is  drawn  from  the 
arena.  A  verse  or  two  before  the  writer  was  speaking 
about  the  race.  Now  he  slightly  shifts  his  point  of 
view,  and  is  speaking  rather  about  the  wrestling  or  the 
pugilistic  encounters  that  were  there  waged.  And  his 
point  is  that  always,  and  everywhere,  however  the 
forms  may  vary  in  which  the  conflict  is  carried  on, 
there  is  inseparable  from  the  Christian  life  an  element 
of  effort,  endurance  and  antagonism.  That  is  worth 
thinking  about  for  a  moment.  It  is  all  very  well  to 
sing  of  green  pastures  and  still  waters,  and  to  rejoice 
in  the  blessings,  the  consolations,  the  tranquillities,  the 
raptures  of  Christian  experience,  and  to  rejoice  in  the 
thought  of  the  many  mercies  for  body  and  soul  which 
come  to  men  through  faith.  That  is  all  true  and  all 
blessed,  but  it  is  only  one  side  of  the  truth.  And  unless 
we  have  apprehended,  and  have  reduced  to  practice 
and  experience  the  other  side  of  the  Christian  life,  which 
makes  it  a  toil  and  a  pain  to  the  lower  self,  and  a 
continual  resistance,  I  venture  to  say  that  we  have  no 
right  to  the  soothing  and  sweet  and  tender  side  of  it ; 
and  have  need  to  ask  ourselves  whether  we  know  any- 
thing about  Christianity  at  all.  It  is  not  given  to  us 
merely — it  is  not  given  to  us  chiefly — to  secure  those 
great  and  precious  things  which  it  does  secure,  but  it  is 


V.4]  RESISTING  UNTO  BLOOD  211 

given  to  us  in  order  that,  enriched  and  steadied  and 
strengthened  by  the  possession  of  them,  we  should  be 
the  better  fit  for  the  conflict,  just  as  a  wise  commander 
will  see  that  his  soldiers  are  well  fed  before  he  flings 
them  into  the  battle. 

But  then,  passing  from  that,  which  is  only  a  side 
issue,  let  me  remind  you  of  what  our  antagonist  is — 
•  striving  against  sin.' 

Now  some  people  would  take  my  text  to  mean 
solely  the  conflict  which  each  of  us  has  to  wage  with 
our  own  evils,  meannesses  and  weaknesses.  And  some, 
guided  by  the  context,  would  take  the  reference  to  be 
exclusively  to  the  antagonisms  with  evils  round  about 
us,  and  with  the  embodiment  of  these  in  men  who  do 
not  share  Christian  views  of  life  or  conduct.  But  I 
think  that  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  of  these  two 
exclusive  interpretations  can  be  maintained.  For  sin 
is  one,  whether  embodied  in  ourselves  or  embodied 
in  men  or  in  institutions.  And  we  have  the  same 
conflict  to  wage  against  precisely  the  same  antagonist 
when  we  are  occupied  in  the  task  of  purging  ourselves 
from  all  filthiness  of  flesh  and  spirit,  and  when  we  are 
occupied  in  the  wider  task  of  seeking  to  bring  every 
man  to  recognise  the  power  of  Christ's  love,  and  to 
live  in  purity  by  obedience  to  Him. 

And  so,  the  first  field  on  which  every  Chris- 
tian is  to  win  his  spurs,  to  prove  his  prowess,  and 
to  exercise  his  strength  is  the  field  within,  where 
the  lists  are  very  narrow,  and  where  self  wages  war 
against  self  in  daily  conflict.  Every  man  of  us  carries 
his  own  worst  enemy  inside  his  own  waistcoat.  We 
have  all  lusts,  passions,  inclinations,,  desires,  faults, 
vices,  meannesses,  selfishnesses,  indolences, — a  whole 
host  of  evils  lying  there  like  a  nest  of  vipers  within 


212  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

us,  and  our  first  task,  and  our  lifelong  task,  is  to  take 
the  sting  and  the  poison  out  of  these,  and  to  throttle 
them  and  to  cast  them  out. 

And  then,  and  only  after  that,  there  comes  the  next 
thing — viz.,  the  antagonii^m  in  which  Christian  men 
must  permanently  stand  to  a  world  which  does  not 
sympathise  with  their  views,  which  is  strange  to  the 
maxims  that  rule  their  lives,  and  which  renders  no 
fealty  to  the  King  whom  they  are  sworn  to  obey.  And 
that  antagonism  runs  out  into  various  forms. 

First  of  all,  it  is  the  solemn  duty  of  every  Christian  to 
wage  war  so  as  to  prevent  himself  from  being  caught 
up  in  the  current  of  godless  living  which  prevails  round 
him.  We  have  to  fight  to  keep  ourselves  from  being 
harmed  by  the  world  and  the  worldly  communities 
amidst  which  we  dwell.  What  would  become  of  the 
captain  of  a  ship  who  did  not  take  care  to  have  his 
compass  corrected  so  as  to  neutralise  the  effects  of  all  the 
mass  of  iron  in  his  vessel  ?  You  walk  as  in  the  wards 
of  a  hospital.  If  you  do  not  take  precautions  you  will 
catch  the  disease  that  is  in  the  air.  It  is  as  certain  that 
careless  Christian  people  who  do  not  ever  keep  on 
guard  against  impending  and  surrounding  evil  shall 
be  infected  by  it,  as  it  is  certain  that  if  an  Englishman 
goes  out,  say  to  the  United  States,  he  will  come  back 
with  the  intonations  of  our  brethren  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic  slipping  unconsciously  from  his  tongue. 
The  first  duty,  imperative  upon  Christian  people,  is  to 
realise  that  they  live  in  the  midst  of  an  order  of  things 
that  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  Master's  prin- 
ciples, and  so  to  beware  that  they  do  not  catch  the 
infection. 

I  do  not  need  to  say  a  word  about  the  other  form  of 
antagonism,  which  is   equally  imperative,  and  which 


V.  4]  RESISTING  UNTO  BLOOD  213 

will  prevent  us  from  caring  much  about  the  judgments 
that  maybe  formed  of  us  by  the  people  round  us.  '  With 
me  it  is  a  very  small  matter  that  I  should  be  judged  of 
you,  or  of  man's  judgment.' 

But  the  resistance  against  sin,  which  is  the  Christian 
man's  merciful  warfare  in  the  world,  is  not  completed 
either  by  his  keeping  himself  from  complicity  with 
surrounding  evils  or  by  his  refusing  to  let  antagonism 
divert  him  from  his  course.  There  is  something  more 
that  is  plain  duty,  and  that  is,  that  every  Christian 
should  be  Christ's  soldier  in  the  attempt  to  get  Christ's 
commandments  recognised,  and  the  principles  of  His 
word  obeyed,  in  the  world. 

Society  is  not  organised  on  Christian  principles.  You 
have  only  to  look  around  you  to  see  that.  I  do  not 
need  to  dwell  upon  the  various  discordances  between  the 
plain  teachings  of  this  Book  and  every  community,  and 
every  nation,  and  every  individual ;  but  let  me  remind 
you  that  until  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  law  for 
individuals  and  communities,  the  Christian  man,  if  he  is 
loyal  to  his  Lord,  must  be  '  striving  against  sin '  in  the 
endeavour  to  get  established  Christ's  kingdom,  which 
is  the  kingdom  of  righteousness.  That  sermon  does 
not  contain  all  Christian  truth,  but  it  is  the  Magna 
Charta  of  an  apj)lied  Christianity;  the  laws  of  the 
kingdom  from  the  lips  of  the  King  Himself. 

So,  brethren,  I  come  to  you  with  this  for  my  message, 
that  no  Christian  man  is  doing  his  work  as  Christ's 
soldier,  '  striving  against  sin,'  until  he  is  seeking,  with 
the  best  of  his  strength,  to  get  Christ's  law,  which  is 
righteousness,  established  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Talk  of  dynamiters  and  explosives,  why,  there  is 
explosive  power  enough  in  Christianity  to  shatter  to 
pieces  the  corruptions  which  make  so  large  a  part  of 


214  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

modern  social  life.  But,  alas!  the  Christian  Church 
has  too  long  and  too  generally  been  employed  in  damp- 
ing down  the  gunpowder  instead  of  firing  it,  and  seek- 
ing to  explain  away  the  large  and  plain  commandments 
of  the  Master,  instead  of  seeking  to  apply  them. 

There  is  a  new  spirit  springing  up  around  us  to-day, 
for  which  we  should  be  devoutly  thankful,  whilst  at  the 
same  time  we  must  forget  that,  like  all  new  move- 
ments, it  is  apt  to  be  one-sided  and  exaggerated.  Much 
harm  is  done,  I  believe,  in  many  directions  by  Christian 
teachers  seeking  to  apply  the  principles  of  Christ's 
commandments  to  various  phases  of  social  iniquity 
without  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  the  case. 
But  that  being  fully  admitted,  I  still  rejoice  to  believe 
that  Christ's  m.en  round  about  us  are  waking  up,  as 
they  never  did  before,  to  the  solemn  obligation  laid 
upon  Christian  churches,  if  they  are  not  to  perish  of 
inanition  and  inactivity,  to  proclaim  and  seek  to  have 
recognised  Christ's  laws  for  the  individual  and  Christ's 
law  for  the  community. 

Only  remember  the  limitations  and  the  antecedents 
about  which  I  have  already  spoken  a  word.  No  man 
has  any  business  to  go  crusading  among  other  people 
until  he  has  cleansed  himself.  And  the  first  task  of  the 
Christian  reformer  is  with  his  own  heart.  And  again, 
it  is  useless  to  deal  with  institutions  unless  you  deal 
with  the  men  who  live  under  them.  The  main  work  of 
the  Christian  Church  must  ever  be  with  individuals, 
and  through  their  improvement  the  improvement  of 
society  will  be  most  fully  secured.  But  the  error  of 
many  good  and  earnest  men  to-day  is  in  thinking 
that  if  you  set  the  '  environment,'  as  they  call  it,  right 
you  will  get  the  men  right.  It  is  a  mistake.  Take  a 
pack  of  drunken  wastrels  out  of  the  slums  and  put 


V.4]  RESISTING  UNTO  BLOOD  215 

them  into  model  lodging-houses,  and  in  a  fortnight  the 
lodging-houses  will  be  as  dirty  as  the  sties  from  which 
the  men  were  dragged.  Mend  the  men,  and  then  you 
may  hopefully  set  them  in  new  environment;  mend 
the  men,  and  society  will  be  mended.  And,  mend  your- 
selves first,  and  then  you  will  be  able  to  mend  society. 
Resist  your  own  sin,  and  then  go  out  to  fight  with  the 
sin  of  others. 

II.  Notice  the  brunt  of  the  battle  which  has  been 
borne  by  others. 

I  have  already  said  that  the  immediate  context  sug- 
gests two  contrasts  between  the  comparative  immunity 
from  persecution  of  the  readers  of  the  letter  and  cer- 
tain others. 

The  first  is  that  suggested  by  all  that  glorious  muster- 
roll  of  heroes  and  martyrs  of  the  faith  which  precedes 
this  chapter.  And  I  may  say  without  dealing  in  rhetoric, 
or  dilating  on  the  subject,  that  Christian  men  in  this 
generation  may  well  bethink  themselves  of  what  it  was 
that  their  fathers  bore,  and  did,  that  has  won  for  them 
this  ease. 

I  remember  an  old  church,  on  the  slopes  of  one  of  the 
hills  of  Rome,  which  is  covered  over  on  all  its  interior 
walls  with  a  set  of  the  most  gruesome  pictures  of  the 
martyrs.  There  may  be  an  unwholesome  admiration  and 
adoration  of  these.  I  think  modern  Christianity,  in  its 
complacency  with  itseli,  and  this  marvellous  nineteenth 
century,  of  which  we  are  so  proud,  would  be  all  the 
better  if  it  went  back  sometimes  to  remember  that 
there  were  times  when  '  young  men  and  maidens,  and 
old  men  and  children,'  had  to  resist  to  blood  ;  and  when 
they  went  to  their  deaths  as  joyfully  as  a  bride  to  the 
altar. 

Ah,  brethren  !  you  Nonconformists  in  this  generation, 


21G  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

who  have  an  easy-going  religion,  do  not  always  re- 
member how  it  was  won.  Think  of  George  Fox  and 
the  Friends.  Think  of  the  early  Nonconformists, 
hunted  and  harried,  their  noses  slit  and  ears  cropped 
ofip,  their  pillories  and  exile,  and  then  be  ashamed  to 
talk  about  the  difficulties  that  you  have  to  meet.  '  Ye 
have  not  resisted  unto  blood.' 

There  is  a  far  more  touching  contrast  suggested,  and 
apparently  mainly  in  the  writer's  mind,  because  just 
before  he  has  said,  'Consider  Him  that  endured  such 
contradiction  of  sinners.'  The  word  that  he  employs 
for  *  consider '  might  be  rendered  '  compare,  weigh  in 
the  balance,'  Christ's  sufferings  and  yours.  He  has 
borne  the  heavy  end  of  the  Cross  of  which  He  lays  the 
light  end  upon  our  shoulders.  Of  course  the  more 
mysterious  and  profound  aspects  of  Christ's  death,  in 
which  He  is  no  pattern  for  us,  but  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins,  do  not  come  into  view  in  this  contrast.  They 
are  abundantly  treated  in  the  rest  of  the  letter.  But 
here  the  writer  is  thinking  of  Jesus  Christ  in  His 
capacity  of  the  Prince  of  sufferers  for  righteousness' 
sake,  who  could  have  escaped  His  Cross  if  He  had 
chosen  to  abandon  His  warfare  and  His  witness.  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  great  deal  more  than  that.  And  the  differ- 
entia of  His  sufferings  and  death  is  not  touched  by  such 
a  consideration.  But  do  not  let  us  forget  that  He  is 
that,  and  that  whatever  else  His  death  is,  it  stands  also 
as  being  the  very  climax  of  all  suffering  for  righteous- 
ness. He  is  the  King  of  the  martyrs  as  well  as  the 
Sacrifice  for  the  world's  sin.  Let  us  turn  to  Him,  and 
mark  the  heroic  strength  of  character,  hidden  from 
hasty  observation  by  the  sweet  gentleness  in  which  it 
was  enshrined,  like  the  iron  hand  in  a  velvet  glove. 
Let  us  understand  how  His  pattern  is  held  forth  to  us, 


V.  4]  RESISTING  UNTO  BLOOD  217 

and  how  the  Cross  is  our  example,  as  well  as  the  ground 
of  all  our  hope.  'Yo  have  not  yet  resisted.  .  .  .  Con- 
sider Him.' 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  note  the  lighter  warfare 
incumbent  upon  us. 

The  resistance  changes  its  form,  but  in  essence  it  con- 
tinues. In  old  days  warfare  consisted  in  men  bludgeon- 
ing each  other,  or  engaging  in  hand-grips  foot  to  foot 
and  face  to  face.  Nowadays  it  is  artillery  duels— a 
great  deal  more  scientific,  a  great  deal  less  coarse ;  but 
it  is  warfare  all  the  same.  The  world  used  to  burn 
Christians,  to  hang  them,  to  stone  them.  It  does  not 
do  that  now,  but  it  fights  them  yet.  The  world  has 
become  partially  Christianised,  and  the  principles  of 
Christianity  have,  in  a  certain  imperfect  way,  infil- 
trated themselves  through  the  mass,  so  that  the 
antagonism  is  not  quite  as  hot  as  it  once  was. 
And  the  Church  has  weakened  its  testimony  and 
largely  adopted  the  maxims  of  the  world.  So  why 
should  the  world  persecute  a  Church  which  is  only  a 
bit  of  the  world  under  another  name?  But  let  any 
man  for  himself  honestly  try  to  live  a  life  modelled  on 
Christ's  maxims,  and  let  him  cast  himself  against 
some  of  the  clamant  evils  round  about  him,  and  seek 
to  subdue  them,  because  Christ  has  bidden  him,  and  he 
will  see  whether  the  old  antagonism  is  not  there  yet. 
What  a  chorus  of  select  epithets  will  immediately  be 
discharged  !  *  Impracticable,'  '  fanatical,'  *  one-sided,' 
'revolutionary,'  'sour  visaged,'  'Pharisee,'  'hypocrite.' 
These  will  be  the  sweet-smelling  flowers  in  the  garland 
that  will  be  woven.  Depend  upon  it,  a  Christian  man 
who  is  bent  on  living  out  Christianity  for  himself,  and 
on  seeking  to  apply  it  around  him,  will  have  to  fight 
and  endure. 


218  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

But  all  that  is  as  nothing— nothing— to  what  the 
front  rank  had  to  go  through,  and  went  through,  joy- 
fully. They  fell  in  the  trenches  and  filled  them  up,  that 
the  rear  rank  might  pass  across.  They  })ore  sword 
stabs;  we  have  only  to  bear  pin  pricks.  Stones  were 
flung  at  them,  as  at  Stephen  outside  the  wall;  handfuls 
of  mud  are  all  that  we  have  to  be  afraid  of. 

So,  brethren,  accept  thankfully  to-day's  form  of  the 
permanent  conflict,  and  see  that  you  do  unmurmuringly, 
cheerfully,  and  thoroughly  the  task  that  is  laid  upon 
you.  And  do  not  think  much  of  the  discomforts  and 
annoyances.  For  us  to  speak  about  sacrifices  for 
Christ  is  as  if  a  bargeman  on  a  canal  were  to  dilate 
on  the  perils  of  his  voyage  in  the  hearing  of  an  Arctic 
explorer;  or  as  if  a  man  that  went  in  a  first-class 
carriage  to  London  were  to  speak  to  an  African 
traveller  about  '  the  perils  of  the  road.'  '  Ye  have 
not  yet  resisted  unto  blood.  'Consider  Him';  and 
take  up  your  cross,  and  follow  Him. 


A  FATHER'S  DISCIPLINE 

'For  they  verily  for  a  few  days  chastened  us  after  their  own  pleasure ;  but  He 
for  our  profit,  that  we  might  be  partakers  of  His  holiness.'— Heb.  xii.  10. 

Few  words  of  Scripture  have  been  oftener  than  these 
laid  as  a  healing  balm  on  wounded  hearts.  They  may 
be  long  unnoticed  on  the  page,  like  a  lighthouse  in 
calm  sunshine,  but  sooner  or  later  the  stormy  night 
falls,  and  then  the  bright  beam  flashes  out  and  is 
welcome.  They  go  very  deep  into  the  meaning  of  life 
as    discipline;    they  tell   us  how  much    better    God's 


V.  10]         A  FATHER  S  DISCIPLINE  219 

discipline  is  than  that  of  the  most  loving  and  wise  of 
parents,  and  they  give  that  superiority  as  a  reason  for 
onr  yielding  more  entire  and  cheerful  obedience  to  Him 
than  we  do  to  such. 

/  Now,  to  grasp  the  full  meaning  of  these  words,  we 
have  to  notice  that  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly 
disciplines  are  described  in  four  contrasted  clauses, 
which  are  arranged  in  what  students  call  inverted 
parallelism— that  is  to  say,  the  first  clause  corresponds 
to  the  fourth  and  the  second  to  the  third.  •  For  a  few 
days'  pairs  off  with  'that  we  might  be  partakers  of 
His  holiness.'  Now,  at  first  sight  that  does  not  seem 
a  contrast;  but  notice  that  the  'for'  in  the  former 
clause  is  not  the  'for'  of  duration,  but  of  direction.  It 
does  not  tell  us  the  space  during  which  the  chastise- 
ment or  discipline  lasts,  but  the  end  towards  which  it 
is  pointed.  The  earthly  parent's  discipline  trains  a  boy 
or  girl  for  circumstances,  pursuits,  occupations,  profes- 
sions, all  of  which  terminate  with  the  brief  span  of  life. 
God's  training  is  for  an  eternal  day.  It  would  be  quite 
irrelevant  to  bring  in  here  any  reference  to  the  length 
of  time  during  which  an  earthly  father's  discipline 
lasts,  but  it  is  in  full  consonance  with  the  writer's 
intention  to  dwell  upon  the  limited  scope  of  the  one 
and  the  wide  and  eternal  purpose  of  the  other. 

Then,  as  for  the  other  contrast — '  for  their  own 
pleasure,'  or,  as  the  Revised  Version  reads  it,  'as 
seemed  good  to  them' — 'but  He  for  our  profit.' 
Elements  of  personal  peculiarity,  whim,  passion,  limited 
and  possibly  erroneous  conceptions  of  what  is  the 
right  thing  to  do  for  the  child,  enter  into  the  training 
of  the  wisest  and  most  loving  amongst  us;  and  we 
often  make  a  mistake  and  do  harm  when  we  think  we 
are  doing  good.    But  God's  training  is  all  from  a  simple 


220  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

and  unerring  regard  to  the  benefit  of  His  child.  Thus 
the  guiding  principles  of  the  two  disciplines  are  con- 
trasted in  the  two  central  clauses. 

Now,  these  are  very  threadbare,  commonplace,  and 
old-fashioned  thoughts ;  but,  perhaps,  they  are  so 
familiar  that  they  have  not  their  proper  power  over 
us ;  and  I  wish  to  try  in  this  sermon,  if  I  can,  to  get 
more  into  them,  or  to  get  them  more  into  us,  by  one  or 
two  very  plain  remarks. 

I.  I  would  ask  you  to  note,  first,  the  grand,  deep, 
general  conception,  here  firmly  laid  hold  of,  of  life  as 
only  intelligible  when  it  is  regarded  as  education  or 
discipline. 

God  corrects,  chastens,  trains,  educates.  That  is  the 
deepest  word  about  everything  that  befalls  us.  Now, 
there  are  involved  in  that  two  or  three  very  obvious 
thoughts,  which  would  make  us  all  calmer  and  nobler 
and  stronger,  if  they  were  vividly  and  vitally  present 
to  us  day  by  day. 

The  first  is  that  all  which  befalls  us  has  a  will  behind 
it  and  is  co-operant  to  an  end.  Life  is  not  a  heap  of 
unconnected  incidents,  like  a  number  of  links  flung 
down  on  the  ground,  but  the  links  are  a  chain,  and  the 
chain  has  a  staple.  It  is  not  a  law  without  a  law-giver 
that  shapes  men's  lives.  It  is  not  a  blind,  impersonal 
chance  that  presides  over  it.  Why,  these  very  meteors 
that  astronomers  expect  in  autumn  to  be  flying  and 
flashing  through  the  sky  in  apparent  wild  disorder,  all 
obey  law.  Our  lives,  in  like  manner,  are  embodied 
thoughts  of  God's,  in  as  far  as  the  incidents  which 
befall  in  them  are  concerned.  We  may  mar,  we  may 
fight  against,  may  contradict  the  presiding  divine 
purpose  ;  but  yet,  behind  the  wild  dance  of  flashing  and 
transitory  lights  that  go  careering  all  over  the  sky, 


V.  10]         A  FATHER'S  DISCIPLINE  221 

there  guides,  not  an  impersonal  Power,  but  a  living, 
loving  Will.  He,  not  it\  He,  not  they,  men,  circum- 
stances, what  people  call  second  causes — He  corrects, 
and  He  does  it  for  a  great  purpose. 

Ah !  if  we  believed  that,  and  not  merely  said  it  from 
the  teeth  outwards,  but  if  it  were  a  living  conviction 
with  us,  do  you  not  think  our  lives  would  tower  up  into 
a  nobleness,  and  settle  themselves  down  into  a  tran- 
quillity all  strange  to  them  to-day  ? 

But,  then,  further,  there  is  the  other  thought  to  be 
grasped,  that  all  our  days  we  are  here  in  a  state  of 
pupilage.  The  world  is  God's  nursery.  There  are 
many  mansions  in  the  Father's  house ;  and  this  earth 
is  where  He  keeps  the  little  ones.  That  is  the  true 
meaning  of  everything  that  befalls  us.  It  is  education. 
Work  would  not  be  worth  doing  if  it  were  not.  Life  is 
given  to  us  to  teach  us  how  to  live,  to  exercise  our 
powers,  to  give  us  habits  and  facilities  of  working. 
We  are  like  boys  in  a  training  ship  that  lies  for  most 
of  the  time  in  harbour,  and  now  and  then  goes  out 
upon  some  short  and  easy  cruise ;  not  for  the  sake  of 
getting  anywhere  in  particular,  but  for  the  sake  of 
exercising  the  lads  in  seamanship.  There  is  no  meaning 
worthy  of  us — to  say  nothing  of  God — in  anything  that 
we  do,  unless  it  is  looked  upon  as  schooling.  We  all 
say  we  believe  that.  Alas  !  I  am  afraid  very  many  of 
us  forget  it. 

But  that  conception  of  the  meaning  of  each  event 
that  befalls  us  carries  with  it  the  conception  of  the 
whole  of  this  life,  as  being  an  education  towards 
another.  I  do  not  understand  how  any  man  can  bear 
to  live  here,  and  to  do  all  his  painful  work,  unless  he 
thinks  that  by  it  he  is  getting  ready  for  the  life  beyond ; 
and  that  'nothing  can  bereave  him  of  the  force  he 


222  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

made  his  own,  being  here.'    The  rough  ore  is  turned  into 
steel  by  being 

'  Plunged  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 
And  heated  hot  with  hopes  and  fears, 
And  battered  with  the  shocks  of  doom.' 


And  then — what  then  ?  Is  an  instrument,  thus  fashioned 
and  tempered  and  polished,  destined  to  be  broken  and 
'thrown  as  rubbish  to  the  void'?  Certainly  not.  If 
this  life  is  education,  as  is  obvious  upon  its  very  face, 
then  there  is  a  place  where  we  shall  exercise  the 
facilities  that  we  have  acquired  here,  and  manifest  in 
loftier  forms  the  characters  which  here  we  have  made 
our  own. 

Now,  brethren,  if  we  carry  these  thoughts  with  us 
habitually,  what  a  difference  it  will  make  upon  every- 
thing that  befalls  us !  You  hear  men  often  maunder- 
ing and  murmuring  about  the  mysteries  of  the  pain  and 
sorrow  and  suffering  of  this  world,  wondering  if  there 
is  any  loving  Will  behind  it  all.  That  perplexed 
questioning  goes  on  the  hypothesis  that  life  is  meant 
mainly  for  enjoyment  or  for  material  good.  If  we 
once  apprehended  in  its  all-applicable  range  this  simple 
truth,  that  life  is  a  discipline,  we  should  have  less 
difficulty  in  understanding  what  people  call  the 
mysteries  of  Providence.  I  do  not  say  it  would  in- 
terpret everything,  but  it  would  interpret  an  immense 
deal.  It  would  make  us  eager,  as  each  event  came,  to 
find  out  its  special  mission  and  what  it  was  meant  to 
do  for  us.  It  would  dignify  trifles,  and  bring  down  the 
overwhelming  magnitude  of  the  so-called  great  events, 
and  would  make  us  lords  of  ourselves,  and  lords  of 
circumstances,  and  ready  to  wring  the  last  drop  of 


V.  10]        A  FATHER'S  DISCIPLINE  223 

possible  advantage  out  of  each  thing  that  befell  us. 
Life  is  a  Father's  discipline. 

II.  Note  the  guiding  principle  of  that  discipline. 

'  They  ...  as  seemed  good  to  them.'  I  have  already 
said  that,  even  in  the  most  wise  and  unselfish  training 
by  an  earthly  parent,  there  will  mingle  subjective 
elements,  peculiarities  of  view  and  thought,  and  some- 
times of  passion  and  whim  and  other  ingredients,  which 
detract  from  the  value  of  all  such  training.  The  guid- 
ing principle  for  each  earthly  parent,  even  at  the  best, 
can  only  be  his  conception  of  what  is  for  the  good  of 
his  child ;  and  oftentimes  that  is  not  purely  the  guide 
by  which  the  parent's  discipline  is  directed.  So  the 
text  turns  us  away  from  all  these  incompletenesses, 
and  tells  us,  '  He  for  our  profit'— with  no  sidelong  look 
to  anything  else,  and  with  an  entirely  wise  knowledge 
of  what  is  best  for  us,  so  that  the  result  will  be  always 
and  only  for  our  good.  This  is  the  point  of  view  from 
which  every  Christian  man  ought  to  look  upon  all  that 
befalls  him. 

What  follows?  This,  plainly:  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  evil  except  the  evil  of  sin.  All  that  comes  is 
good — of  various  sorts  and  various  complexions,  but 
all  generically  the  same.  The  inundation  comes 
up  over  the  fields,  and  men  are  in  despair.  It 
goes  down;  and  then,  like  the  slime  left  from  the 
Nile  in  flood,  there  is  better  soil  for  the  fertilising  of 
our  land.  Storms  keep  sea  and  air  from  stagnating. 
All  that  men  call  evil  in  the  material  world  has  in  it 
a  soul  of  good. 

That  is  an  old,  old  commonplace ;  but,  like  the  other 
one,  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  it  is  more  often 
professed  than  realised,  and  we  need  to  be  brought  back 
to  the  recognition  of  it  more  entirely  than  we  ordinarily 


224  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

are.  If  it  be  that  all  ray  life  is  paternal  discipline,  and 
that  God  makes  no  mistakes,  then  I  can  embrace  what- 
ever comes  to  me,  and  be  sure  that  in  it  I  shall  find 
that  which  will  be  for  my  good. 

Ah,  brethren,  it  is  easy  to  say  so  when  things 
go  well;  but,  surely,  when  the  night  falls  is  the  time 
for  the  stars  to  shine.  That  gracious  word  should 
shine  upon  some  of  us  in  to-day's  perplexities,  and 
pains,  and  disappointments,  and  sorrows — *  He  for  our 
profit.' 

Now,  that  great  thought  does  not  in  the  least  deny 
the  fact  that  pain  and  sorrow,  and  so-called  evil,  are 
very  real.  There  is  no  false  stoicism  in  Christianity. 
The  mission  of  our  troubles  would  not  be  effected 
unless  they  did  trouble  us.  The  good  that  we  get 
from  a  sorrow  would  not  be  realised  unless  we  did 
sorrow.  '  Weep  for  yourselves,'  said  the  Master,  '  and 
for  your  children.'  It  is  right  that  we  should  writhe 
in  pain.  It  is  right  that  we  should  yield  to  the  impres- 
sions that  are  made  upon  us  by  calamities.  But  it  is 
not  right  that  we  should  be  so  affected  as  that  we 
should  fail  to  discern  in  them  this  gracious  thought — 
'for  our  profit.'  God  sends  us  many  love-tokens,  and 
amongst  them  are  the  great  and  the  little  annoyances 
and  pains  that  beset  our  lives,  and  on  each  of  them,  if 
we  would  look,  we  should  see  written,  in  His  own  hand, 
this  inscription :  '  For  your  good.'  Do  not  let  us  have 
our  eyes  so  full  of  tears  that  we  cannot  see,  or  our 
hearts  so  full  of  regrets  that  we  cannot  accept,  that 
sweet,  strong  message. 

The  guiding  principle  of  all  that  befalls  us  is  God's 
unerring  knowledge  of  what  will  do  us  good.  That 
will  not  prevent,  and  is  not  meant  to  prevent,  the  arrow 
from  wounding,  but  it  does  wipe   the  poison  off  the 


V.  10]         A  FATHER'S  DISCIPLINE  225 

arrow,  and  diminish  the  pain,  and  should  diminish  the 
tears. 

III.  Lastly,  here  we  see  the  great  aim  of  all  the 
discipline. 

The  earthly  parent  trains  his  son,  or  her  daughter, 
for  earthly  occupations.  These  last  a  little  while.  God 
trains  us  for  an  eternal  end :  '  that  we  should  be 
partakers  of  His  holiness.'  The  one  object  which  is 
congruous  with  a  man's  nature,  and  is  stamped  on  his 
whole  being,  as  its  only  adequate  end,  is  that  he  should 
be  like  God.  Holiness  is  the  Scriptural  shorthand 
expression  for  all  that  in  the  divine  nature  which 
separates  God  from,  and  lifts  Him  above,  the  creature ; 
and  in  that  aspect  of  the  word  the  gulf  can  never  be 
lessened  nor  bridged  between  us  and  Him.  But  it  also 
is  the  expression  for  the  moral  purity  and  perfection 
of  that  divine  nature  which  separates  Him  from  the 
creatures  far  more  really  than  do  the  metaphysical 
attributes  that  belong  to  His  infinitude  and  eternity ; 
and  in  that  aspect  the  great  hope  that  is  given  to  us  is 
that  we  may  rise  nearer  and  nearer  to  that  perfect 
whiteness  of  purity,  and  though  we  cannot  share  in 
His  essential,  changeless  being,  may  'icalk' — as  befits 
our  limited  and  changeful  natures — *in  the  light,  as 
He' — as  befits  His  boundless  and  eternal  being — 'is  in 
the  light.'  That  is  the  only  end  which  it  is  worthy  of 
a  man,  being  what  he  is,  to  propose  to  himself  as  the 
issue  of  his  earthly  experience.  If  I  fail  in  that, 
whatever  else  I  have  accomplished,  I  fail  in  everything. 
I  may  have  made  myself  rich,  cultured,  learned,  famous, 
refined,  prosperous ;  but  if  I  have  not  at  least  begun  to 
be  like  God  in  purity,  in  will,  in  heart,  then  my  whole 
career  has  missed  the  purpose  for  which  I  was  made, 
and  for  which  all  the  discipline  of  life  has  been  lavished 

P 


226  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

upon  me.  Fail  there,  and,  wherever  you  succeed,  you 
are  a  failure.  Succeed  there,  and,  wherever  you  fail, 
you  are  a  success. 

That  great  and  only  worthy  end  may  be  reached  by 
the  ministration  of  circumstances  and  the  discipline 
through  which  God  passes  us.  These  are  not  the  only 
ways  by  which  He  makes  us  partakers  of  His  holiness, 
as  we  well  know.  There  is  the  work  of  that  Divine 
Spirit  who  is  granted  to  every  believer  to  breathe  into 
him  the  holy  breath  of  an  immortal  and  incorruptible 
life.  To  work  along  with  these  there  is  the  influence 
that  is  brought  to  bear  upon  us  by  the  circumstances 
in  which  we  are  placed  and  the  duties  which  we  have 
to  perform.  These  may  all  help  us  to  be  nearer  and 
liker  to  God. 

That  is  the  intention  of  our  sorrows.  They  will  wean 
us ;  they  will  refine  us ;  and  they  will  blow  us  to  His 
breast,  as  a  strong  wind  might  sweep  a  man  into 
some  refuge  from  itself.  I  am  sure  that  among  my 
hearers  there  are  some  who  can  thankfully  attest  that 
they  were  brought  nearer  to  God  by  some  short,  sharp 
sorrow  than  by  many  long  days  of  prosperity.  What 
Absalom,  in  his  wayward,  impulsive  way,  did  with  Joab 
is  like  what  God  sometimes  does  with  His  sons.  Joab 
would  not  come  to  Absalom's  palace,  so  Absalom  set 
his  corn  on  fire;  and  then  Joab  came.  So  God  some- 
times burns  our  harvests  that  we  may  go  to  Him. 

But  the  sorrow  that  is  meant  to  bring  us  nearer  to 
Him  may  be  in  vain.  The  same  circumstances  may 
produce  opposite  effects.  I  dare  say  there  are  people 
listening  to  me  now  who  have  been  made  hard, 
and  sullen,  and  bitter,  and  paralysed  for  good  work, 
because  they  have  some  heavy  burden  or  some  wound 
that  life  can  never  heal,  to  be  carried  or  to  ache.    Ah, 


V.  10]  ESAU'S  VAIN  TEARS  227 

brethren !  we  are  often  like  shipwrecked  crews,  of  whom 
some  are  driven  by  the  danger  to  their  knees,  and  some 
are  driven  to  the  spirit-casks.  Take  care  that  you  do 
not  waste  your  sorrows ;  that  you  do  not  let  the  precious 
gifts  of  disappointment,  pain,  loss,  loneliness,  ill-health, 
or  similar  afflictions  that  come  into  your  daily  life,  mar 
you  instead  of  mending  you.  See  that  they  send  you 
nearer  to  God,  and  not  that  they  drive  you  farther 
from  Him.  See  that  they  make  you  more  anxious  to 
have  the  durable  riches  and  righteousness  which  no 
man  can  take  from  you,  than  to  grasp  at  what  may 
yet  remain  of  fleeting  earthly  joys. 

So,  brethren,  let  us  try  to  school  ourselves  into  the 
habitual  and  operative  conviction  that  life  is  discipline. 
Let  us  yield  ourselves  to  the  loving  will  of  the  unerring 
Father,  the  perfect  love.  Let  us  beware  of  getting  no 
good  from  what  is  charged  to  the  brim  with  good.  And 
let  us  see  to  it  that  out  of  the  many  fleeting  circum- 
stances of  life  we  gather  and  keep  the  eternal  fruit  of 
being  partakers  of  His  holiness.  May  it  never  have  to 
be  said  of  any  of  us  that  we  wasted  the  mercies  which 
were  judgments  too,  and  found  no  good  in  the  things 
that  our  tortured  hearts  felt  to  be  also  evils,  lest  God 
should  have  to  wail  over  any  of  us,  *  In  vain  have  I 
smitten  your  children ;  they  have  received  no  correc- 
tion I ' 


ESAU'S  VAIN  TEARS 

'For  ye  know  how  that  afterward,  when  he  would  have  inherited  the  blessing, 
he  was  rejected  :  for  he  found  no  place  of  repentance,  though  he  sought  it  carefully 
with  tears.'— Heb.  xii.  17, 

These  words  have  been  often  understood  as  teaching 
a  very  ghastly  and  terrible  doctrine,  viz.,  that  a  man 


228  HEBREWS  [ch.  xu. 

may  earnestly  and  tearfully  desire  to  repent,  and  bo 
unable  to  do  so.  Such  teaching  has  burdened  many 
a  heart,  and  has  put  obstacles  before  many  feeble  feet 
in  the  way  of  a  return  to  God.  It  seems  to  me  to  bo 
contradicted  by  a  thousand  places  of  Scripture,  and  to 
involve  something  very  much  like  a  contradiction  in 
terms. 

The  Revised  Version,  by  a  very  slight  change,  has  dis- 
pelled that  ugly  dream.  It  has  put  the  clause  'for  he 
found  no  place  of  repentance'  in  a  parenthesis.  The 
effect  of  that  is  to  bring  the  first  and  last  clauses  of  the 
verse  more  closely  together ;  and  to  show  more  clearly 
that  what  Esau  is  represented  as  seeking,  and  seeking 
with  tears  in  vain,  is  not  repentance,  but  the  Father's 
blessing. 

It  may  not,  perhaps,  be  legitimate,  regard  being  had 
to  the  construction  of  the  sentence,  to  treat  the  clause 
in  question  as  a  parenthesis,  because  it  is  so  closely 
connected  with  the  succeeding  clause  by  the  antithesis 
of 'found'  in  the  one  and  'sought'  in  the  other.  But 
although  that  may  be  so,  I  have  no  doubt  whatever 
that  the  truth  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  the  paren- 
thesis of  the  Revised  Version  is  the  true  interpretation 
of  the  words  before  us;  and  that  we  are  to  find  here 
simply  the  declaration  that  this  man,  at  a  given  time 
of  his  life,  '  would  have  inherited  the  blessing,' '  sought 
it  carefully  with  tears,'  and  found  it  not. 

Now  the  words,  thus  understood,  teach  a  sufficiently 
grave  and  solemn  lesson,  though  they  do  not  teach  the 
ghastly,  and,  as  I  believe,  the  erroneous  thought  that 
has  been  drawn  from  them.  And  it  may  be  worth  our 
while  to  consider  for  a  moment  the  lessons  that  they 
do  teach,  and  to  try  to  lay  them  upon  our  hearts. 

I.  I  begin  then,  first,  with  asking  you  to  look  at  the 


V.  17]  ESAU'S  VAIN  TEARS  229 

history  which  is  held  up  before  us  here  as  a  solemn 
warning. 

The  character  of  Esau  is  a  very  simple  one.  In  many 
respects  he  is  much  more  attractive  and  admirable  than 
his  brother  Jacob.  He  is  frank,  generous,  quick  to 
kindle  into  anger,  but,  as  the  story  shows  us  too,  quick 
to  forgive;  placable,  easily  to  be  entreated;  with  the 
wild  Arab  virtues  of  chivalry  and  generosity  and 
bravery ;  and  the  vices  belonging  to  such  a  character, 
of  almost  utter  incapacity  to  rise  beyond  the  present, 
and  of  a  great  susceptibility  to  mere  material  and 
sensual  gratification. 

And  so  he  comes  in  from  the  field  hungry  and  faint. 
The  pottage  smells  savoury  there,  as  it  smokes  in  the 
dish  before  him.  The  birthright  is  a  long  way  off,  very 
unsubstantial,  very  ideal,  and  the  thing  that  is  nearest 
him,  though  it  be  small,  shuts  out  from  his  view  the 
far  greater  thing  that  lies  beyond.  Therefore  he  elects 
to  secure  present  gratification  of  a  material  character, 
whatever  becomes  of  future  satisfaction  of  a  higher 
and  more  spiritual  nature. 

And  are  you  going  to  throw  stones  at  him  for  that? 
Is  it  such  a  very  unusual  thing  to  find  men  choosing 
paths  that  will  yield  some  modicum  of  sufficiently  hot 
and  sufficiently  savoury  pottage,  whatever  becomes  of 
their  birthright  ?  Is  there  nobody  here  that  believes 
more  in  wealth  than  in  purity?  Is  there  no  young 
man  here  who  would  rather  live  to  make  a  fortune 
than  to  cultivate  his  own  nature  into  loftiest  beauty  ? 
Are  there  none  of  you  that  despise  the  priceless 
things,  the  things  that  have  no  price  in  the  market 
because  they  are  beyond  all  its  wealth  to  purchase? 
Are  there  none  of  us  who  are  such  fools  that 
a    spoonful    of    pottage    to-day    seems    to    us    to    be 


230  HEBREWS  [cH.xn. 

more  real  and  more  precious   than  a  whole  heaven 
hereafter  ? 

Esau  had  a  show  of  reason.  He  said :  *  I  am 
ready  to  die,  and  what  will  mj'^  birthright  do  for 
me?'  Better  a  thousand  times  that  he,  or  we,  should 
die  as  animals  that  we  may  live  as  the  sons  of  God, 
than  that  we  should  buy  existence  at  the  price  of  true 
life.  And  so  the  man  of  our  text  is  sufficiently  like  the 
rest  of  you,  for  you  to  have  a  fellow  feeling  to  hira  that 
should  make  you  wondrous  kind,  and  his  faults  are 
nothing  at  all  extraordinary,  but  only  putting  in 
graphic  form,  and  in  such  disproportion  as  to  be  almost 
absurd,  the  choice  that  the  mass  of  men  always  make 
between  present  and  future,  between  the  material 
and  the  spiritual.  And  then  the  story  goes  on  to 
tell  us  that,  long  years  afterwards,  we  do  not  know 
how  long,  he  found  out  what  a  fool  he  had  been. 
Perhaps  so  much  as  thirty  or  forty  years  elapsed 
between  the  moment  when  he  desj^ised  his  birthright 
and  the  other  moment  that  is  set  before  us  here. 
What  are  the  points  that  come  out  in  the  narrative  to 
which  our  text  refers  ?  '  When  Esau  heard  the  words 
of  his  father,  he  cried  with  a  great  and  exceeding  bitter 
cry,  and  said  unto  his  father,  Bless  me,  even  me  also, 
O  my  father'  .  .  .  and  again,  'Hast  thou  but  one 
blessing,  my  father  ?  Bless  me,  even  me  also,  O  my 
father.  And  Esau  lifted  up  his  voice  and  wept.'  These 
are  the  parts  of  the  history  which  the  writer  of  the 
Hebrews  recalls  to  his  Jewish  hearers.  There  is 
nothing  in  them  about  Esau's  vainly  seeking  for  repent- 
ance, but  there  is  an  account  of  his  passionate  weeping 
and  loud  entreaties  that  he  yet  might  obtain  a  blessing 
from  Isaac's  trembling  lips.  In  the  story  there  is  no 
word  of  his  vainly  trying  to  repent,  but  there  is  a  real 


V.  17]  ESAU'S  VAIN  TEARS  231 

repentance  in  the  sense  in  which  alone  that  word  can 
be  employed,  in  reference  to  such  an  incident  and  upon 
that  plane  of  things,  viz.,  there  is  in  him  a  decided  and 
fundamental  change  of  view,  of  mind,  as  to  the  value 
of  the  birthright  that  he  had  despised,  and  that  is 
repentance;  and  there  is  bitter  sorrow  for  what  had 
passed,  and  that  is  repentance ;  and  there  is  earnest 
desire  that  it  might  be  different,  and  that  is  a  sign  of 
repentance.  There  is  no  sign  of  sorrow  for  sin,  of  re- 
pentance, in  that  sense  of  the  word,  but  if  we  take  the 
word  not  in  the  religious  meaning,  but  in  what  may  be 
called  its  secular  significance,  there  are  in  Esau's  case, 
as  recorded  in  Genesis,  both  the  elements  of  a  decided 
alteration  of  mind  and  purpose,  and  of  penitence  and 
sorrow  for  the  past. 

These,  then,  are  the  facts  of  the  story,  and  these  are 
the  facts  to  which  my  text  appeals,  for  it  begins  by 
saying,  as  to  those  to  whom  the  whole  narrative  was 
familiar:  'Ye  know  how  that.'  Therefore  all  that 
follows  must  find  its  vindication  in  the  story  as  it  is 
written  in  Genesis. 

II.  These,  then,  being  the  facts,  let  me  now  come,  in 
the  second  place,  to  deal  with  the  lesson  which  this 
story  teaches  us. 

Remember  what  I  have  said  as  to  points  which  come 
out  in  the  narrative,  that  the  man  there  seeks  with 
tears  for  the  blessing,  that  so  far  from  vainly  seeking 
to  repent,  in  the  lower  sense  of  the  word  which  alone 
is  appropriate  in  the  present  case,  he  does  repent. 
Therefore  that  expression  of  our  text  *he  found  no 
place  of  repentance '  does  not  mean  '  he  found  no  place 
where  he  could  repent,'  but  it  means  he  found  no  field  on 
which  such  repentance  as  he  had  could  operate — so  as 
to  undo  that  which  was  past.     His  repentance  did  not 


232  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

alter  the  fixed  destination  of  the  blessing.  His  repent- 
ance, his  change  of  mind  as  to  the  worth  of  the  thing 
thrown  away,  and  as  to  his  own  conduct  in  despising 
it,  did  not  bring  the  thing  back  again  to  him.  His 
tears  did  not  obliterate  what  was  done.  He  wished 
that  it  had  been  otherwise,  but  his  wishes  were 
vain. 

And  that  is  the  lesson,  my  brethren,  which  this  text 
as  it  stands  is  intended  to  teach  us.  We  are  pointed 
back  to  that  tragic  picture  of  Esau  there,  weeping, 
wringing  his  hands  in  the  wild  passion  of  his  un- 
cultured nature,  when  the  blessing,  seen  to  be  desir- 
able too  late,  had  vanished  from  his  convulsive  grasp. 
And  the  lesson  that  is  taught  us  is  just  this  old  solemn 
one.  There  may  come  in  your  life  a  time  when  the 
scales  will  fall  from  your  eyes,  and  you  will  see  how 
insignificant  and  miserable  are  the  present  gratifica- 
tions for  which  you  have  sold  your  birthright,  and 
may  wish  the  bargain  undone  which  cannot  be  undone. 
You  cannot  wash  out  bitter  memories,  you  cannot 
blot  out  habits  by  a  wish.  Tears  will  not  alter  the 
irrevocable,  you  cannot  avert  consequences  that  fall 
upon  a  man,  the  consequences  of  a  lifetime,  by  any 
weeping  and  wringing  of  your  hands,  and  by  any  wish 
that  they  might  disappear.  'What  I  have  written 
I  have  written,'  said  Pilate,  and  in  tragic  sense  it  is 
true  about  many  a  man  who  at  the  end  looks  back 
upon  many  *  a  line  which  dying  he  would  wish  to  blot,' 
but  which  stands  ineffaceable,  not  to  be  scratched  out 
by  any  of  your  penknives,  unless  you  can  cut  out  the 
substance  of  the  soul  on  which  it  is  written. 

My  brother !  learn  the  lesson.  You  young  men  and 
women,  do  you  begin  right,  that  there  may  not  be  iu 
your  career  deeds  or  a  set  of  the  life  which  one  day 


V.  17]  ESAU'S  VAIN  TEARS  233 

you  may  wake  to  see  has  been  all  madness  and  misery ! 
Oh  !  it  is  an  awful  thing  for  men  to  stand  looking 
back  upon  a  past  life  which  to  them  appears  as  the 
vale  of  Sodom,  on  the  morning  after  the  eruption,  did  to 
Abraham  as  he  looked  on  it  from  Mamre,  '  and  lo !  the 
smoke  of  the  country  went  up  as  the  smoke  of  a 
furnace.'  So  foul  with  slime-pits  of  boiling  bitumen, 
the  indulged  lusts  of  the  flesh,  and  dark  with  curling 
smoke-wreaths  which  tell  of  infernal  fires  wasting  the 
fields  that  might  have  waved  fruitful  with  harvests, 
the  dark  remembrances  and  blighting  habits  of  sin 
set  on  fire  of  hell,  does  many  a  man's  life  lie  spread  out 
to  his  gaze.  How  fain  would  he  cancel  the  record,  if 
he  could  !  How  fain  would  he  forget  and  reverse  the 
history !  How  fain  would  he  bring  back  his  early 
innocence  of  these  lusts  and  crimes!  In  vain!  in 
vain! 

The  past  stands — 'Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap.'  I  know,  thank  God  for  the  know- 
ledge, I  know  that — as  we  shall  have  to  say  presently — 
any  man,  at  any  moment  of  his  earthly  career,  may 
find,  if  he  seeks  for  it,  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  which 
bringeth  salvation,  but  I  know  too  that  the  salvation 
which  comes  to  a  man  who  has  all  his  life  been  giving 
himself  up  to  earth,  and  limiting  his  views  and 
moulding  his  character  by  the  present  and  its  con- 
temptible objects,  will  not  be  as  large,  as  full,  as  blessed 
in  many  an  aspect,  as  the  salvation  which  might  have 
been  his  if  at  an  early  stage  in  his  life,  with  his  char- 
acter still  to  mould,  and  his  memory  still  unwritten 
with  evil,  he  liad  turned  himself  to  his  God,  and  found 
peace  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  Maimed  and  marred 
in  a  thousand  ways,  having  memories  which  burn  and 
sting,  having  habits  which  it  will  be  hard  to  fight 


234  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

against ;  with  the  marks  of  the  gyves  upon  his  wrists; 
and  his  eyes  unaccustomed  to  the  daylight,  like  the 
prisoner  that  came  out  of  the  Bastille  after  a  lifetime 
of  imprisonment  there,  and  wanted  to  go  back  again 
because  he  could  not  bear  freedom  and  sunshine ;  so 
many  a  man  brought  to  God  and  saved  yet  so  as  by 
fire,  near  the  end  of  his  days,  has  to  feel  that  it  is  not 
all  the  same  whether  a  lifetime  has  been  spent  in  the 
temple  and  priestly  service,  or  in  the  foul  haunts  of 
vice  and  debauchery. 

We  shall  always  have  as  much  of  God  as  we  can 
hold,  and  as  much  of  salvation  as  we  desire ;  but  the 
tragical  thing  is  that  a  life  spent  in  living,  Esau-like, 
for  the  world  and  for  the  present,  lames  our  desires 
and  limits  our  capacities,  so  that  even  if  such  a  man 
afterwards  become  a  Christian,  it  may  be  impossible 
even  for  the  giving  God  to  give  us  as  large  a  bestow- 
ment  of  His  mercy  and  grace  as  we  might  otherwise 
have  possessed. 

On  the  other  side  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  'the 
publicans  and  the  harlots  shall  go  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God  before  you,'  Pharisees  and  Sadducees.  And  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  the  deep  repentance  and  the 
passionate  trust  with  which  a  soul,  all  spattered  and 
befouled  with  fleshly  sins,  may  cleave  to  the  Master 
that  may  overcome  even  these  disabilities  of  which  I 
have  spoken.  But  in  the  main  it  remains  true  that 
even  if  Esau  at  the  last  gets  a  blessing,  he  bears  away 
a  less  blessing  than  he  might  have  done  had  his  earlier 
life  been  difierent. 

III.  And  now  let  me  turn  last  of  all  to  what  I 
venture  to  consider  the  misapprehension  which  these 
words  do  not  teach. 

They  do  not  teach  that  a  man  may  desire  to  repent 


V.17]  ESAU'S  VAIN  TEARS  235 

■with  tears  and  be  unable  to  do  so.  That,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  to  assert  a  staring,  stark  contradiction,  for  if  a 
man  desire  to  repent  he  must  have  changed  his  views 
as  to  the  conduct  of  which  he  desires  to  repent,  and 
that  change  of  view  is  the  repentance  which  he  desires. 
And  if  a  man  desires  to  repent  there  must  be  in  him 
some  measure  of  regret  and  sorrow  for  the  conduct  of 
which  he  desires  to  repent,  considered  as  sin  against 
God,  and  that  is  repentance. 

Nor  do  the  words  teach,  as  it  seems  to  me,  the 
cognate  thought  which  has  sometimes  been  deduced 
from  them,  that  a  man  may  desire  to  receive  the 
salvation  of  His  soul  from  God,  and  may  not  receive  it. 
To  desire  is  to  possess ;  to  possess  in  the  measure  of 
the  desire,  and  according  to  its  reality.  There  is  no 
such  thing  in  the  spiritual  realm  as  a  real  longing 
unfulfilled.  '  Whosoever  will,  let  him  come  and  take 
of  the  water  of  life  freely.'  And  the  awful  pictures 
that  have  been  drawn  of  men  weeping  because  they 
could  not  repent,  and  of  men  with  passionate  tears 
imploring  from  the  Father  in  heaven  the  blessing 
which  does  not  come  to  them,  are  slanders  upon 
God  and  misapprehensions  of  His  gospel.  That  gospel 
proclaims  that  wheresoever  and  whosoever  will  ask 
shall  receive,  or  rather  that  God  has  already  given, 
and  that  nothing  but  obstinate  determination  not  to 
possess  prevents  any  man  from  being  enriched  with 
the  fulness  of  God's  salvation. 

Only  remember,  dear  brethren,  it  ia  possible  for  a 
man  to  wish  vagrantly,  with  half  his  will,  to  wish  in  a 
languid  fashion,  to  wish  while  he  is  not  prepared  to 
surrender  what  stands  in  the  way  of  his  wish  being 
gratified.  And  such  wishing  as  that  never  got  salva- 
tion, and  never  will.    There  are  plenty  of  people  that 


236  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

would  like  to  be  saved  as  they  understand  it,  and  to  be 
sure  that  they  are  so,  who  are  not  prepared  to  close 
with  the  terms  of  salvation.  It  is  not  wishing  of  that 
sort  that  I  am  talking  about.  Heaven  may  be  had  for 
the  wishing,  but  it  must  be  an  honest  wish,  it  must  be 
out-and-out  wishing,  it  must  be  wishing  which  actuates 
the  life,  it  must  be  wishing  which  drives  you  to  the 
Cross  of  Christ.  And  then,  in  the  measure  of  the 
desire  shall  be  the  gift ;  and  the  larger  the  petition, 
the  larger  the  benediction  which  comes  fluttering  down 
from  heaven  on  to  your  head  and  into  your  heart. 

We  have  all  sold  our  birthright,  but  we  have  a 
Brother  in  whom  we  may  win  it  back,  the  elder 
Brother  of  us  prodigals,  who,  instead  of  grudging 
us  the  fatted  calf  and  the  festival  welcome.  Himself 
has  died  that  they  may  be  ours  ;  and  that  no  penitence 
may  be  unavailing,  nor  any  longing  be  unsatisfied 
for  ever  more. 

Whatever  we  are,  whatever  has  been  our  past,  how- 
ever embruted  in  sensual  vice,  however  entangled  in 
material  gains,  we  have  but  to  turn  ourselves  to  that 
gracious  Lord  our  Brother,  in  whom  the  Father  blesses 
us  with  all  heavenly  blessings,  and  we  shall  share  in 
the  birthright  of  His  firstborn  Son,  'being  heirs  of 
God,  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ.' 


WITH  WHOM  FAITH  LIVES 

'  Ye  are  come  unto  mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly- 
Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerable  company  of  angels,  23.  To  the  general  assembly 
and  church  of  the  firstborn,  which  are  written  in  heaven.'— Heb.  xii.  22,  23. 

The  magnificent  passage  of  which  these  words  are 
part  sums  up  the  contrast  between  Judaism  and 
Christianity  which  this  whole  Epistle  has  been  illus- 


vs.  22, 23]  WITH  WHOM  FAITH  LIVES       237 

trating  and  enforcing.  The  writer  takes  the  scene  on 
Sinai  as  expressive  of  the  genius  of  the  former  revela- 
tion, whose  centre  was  a  law  which  evoked  the  con- 
sciousness of  sin,  and  kindled  terror ;  and  which  was 
embodied  in  sensible  and  material  symbols.  Far  other 
and  better  are  the  characteristics  of  the  latter  revela- 
tion. That  excites  no  dread ;  is  given  from  no  flashing 
miountain  with  accompaniments  of  darkness  and 
trumpet  blasts  and  terrible  words ;  and  it  brings  us 
into  contact  with  no  mere  material  and  therefore 
perishable  symbols,  but  with  realities  none  the  less 
real  because  they  are  above  sense,  and  not  remote  from 
us  though  they  be. 

For,  says  my  text,  '  Ye  are  come,'  not '  Ye  shall  come.' 
The  humblest  life  may  be  in  touch  with  the  grandest 
realities  in  the  universe,  and  need  not  wait  for  death 
to  draw  aside  the  separating  curtain  in  order  to  be  in 
the  presence  of  God  and  in  the  heavenly  Jerusalem. 

How  are  these  things  brought  to  us  ?  By  the  revela- 
tion of  God  in  Christ.  How  are  we  brought  to  them  ? 
By  faith  in  that  revelation.  So  every  believing  life, 
howsoever  encompassed  by  flesh  and  sense,  can  thrust, 
as  it  were,  a  hand  through  the  veil,  and  grasp  the 
realities  beyond.  The  scene  described  in  the  first 
words  of  my  text  may  verily  be  the  platform  on 
which  our  lives  are  lived,  howsoever  in  outward 
form  they  may  be  passed  on  this  low  earth;  and 
the  companions,  which  the  second  part  of  our  text 
discloses,  may  verily  be  our  companions,  though  we 
'  wander  lonely  as  a  cloud,'  or  seem  to  be  surrounded 
by  far  less  noble  society.  By  faith  we  are  come  to 
the  unseen  realities  which  are  come  to  us  by  the 
revelation  of  God  in  Christ.  •  Ye  are  come  unto 
Mount  Zion,' 


238  HEBREWS  [cH.xn. 

Now,  looking  generally  at  these  words,  they  give  us 
just  two  things — the  scene  and  the  companions  of  the 
Christian  life.  The  remainder  of  the  passage  will 
occupy  us  on  future  occasions,  but  for  the  present  I 
confine  myself  to  the  words  which  I  have  read.  And 
I  shall  best  deal  with  them,  I  think,  if  I  simply  follow 
that  division  into  which  they  naturally  fall,  and  ask 
you  to  note,  first,  where  faith  lives,  and,  second,  with 
whom  faith  lives. 

I.  First,  then,  where  faith  lives. 

'Ye  are  come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city 
of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.'  There 
are  two  points  here  which  carry  us  back  to  the 
topography  of  the  ancient  sacred  city.  In  the  literal 
Jerusalem,  Zion  was  the  lofty  Acropolis,  at  once  for- 
tress and  site  of  the  king's  palace,  and  round  it 
clustered  the  dwellings  of  the  city. 

The  two  symbols  are  thus  closely  connected,  and 
present  substantially  the  same  idea,  and  perhaps  it 
is  pressing  a  figure  too  far  to  find  a  diversity  of  mean- 
ing in  the  separate  parts  of  this  closely  connected 
whole.  But  still  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  a 
substantial  difference  of  aspect  in  the  two  clauses. 

The  first  thought,  therefore,  that  I  would  suggest  to 
you  is  this,  that  the  life  of  a  man  w4io  has  truly  laid 
hold  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  so  is  living  by  faith,  is  on  its 
inward  side — that  is,  in  deepest  reality — a  life  passed 
in  the  dwelling  of  the  great  King.  All  through  this 
letter,  the  writer  is  recurring  to  the  thought  of  access 
to  God,  unimpeded  and  continual,  as  being  the  great 
gift  which  Jesus  Christ  has  brought  to  us.  And  here 
he  gathers  it  into  the  noblest  symbol.  There,  lifted 
high  above  all  the  humbler  roofs,  flash  the  golden 
pinnacles  of  the  great  palace  in  which  God  Himself 


vs.  22, 23]  WITH  WHOM  FAITH  LIVES      239 

dwells.  And  we,  toiling  and  moiling  down  here, 
surrounded  by  squalid  circumstances,  and  annoyed  by 
many  cares,  and  limited  by  many  narrownesses  which 
we  often  find  to  be  painful,  and  fighting  with  many 
sorrows,  and  seeming  to  ourselves  to  be,  sometimes, 
homeless  wanderers  in  a  wilderness,  may  yet  ever  more 
'  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  to  behold  His  beauty 
and  to  inquire  in  His  temple.' 

The  privilege  has  for  its  other  side  a  duty;  the 
duty  has  for  its  foundation  a  privilege.  For  if  it  be 
true  that  the  real  life  of  every  believing  soul  is  a  life 
that  never  moves  from  the  temple-palace  where  God 
is,  and  that  its  inmost  secret  and  the  spring  of  its 
vitality  is  communion  with  God,  what  shall  we  say  of 
the  sort  of  lives  that  most  of  us  most  often  live?  Is 
there  any  truth  in  such  exalted  metaphors  as  this  in 
reference  to  us?  Does  it  not  sound  far  liker  irony 
than  truth  to  say  of  people  whose  days  are  so  shuttle- 
cocked  about  by  trifling  cares,  and  absorbed  in  fleeting 
objects,  and  wasted  in  the  chase  after  perishable 
delights,  that  they  'are  come  unto  Mount  Zion,'  and 
dwell  in  the  presence  of  God?  Is  my  'life  hid  with 
Christ  in  God'?  There  is  no  possibility  of  Death 
being  your  usher,  to  introduce  you  into  the  house  of 
God  not  made  with  hands,  unless  faith  has  introduced 
you  into  it  even  whilst  you  tarry  here,  and  unless  your 
habitual  direction  of  heart  and  mind  towards  Him 
keeps  you  ever  more  at  least  a  waiter  at  His  threshold, 
if  you  do  not  pass  beyond.  'I  had  rather  be  a 
doorkeeper  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  than  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  wickedness.' 

My  brother !  do  we  so  knit  ourselves  to  Him,  by 
heartfelt  acceptance  of  the  good  news  of  His  loving 
proximity  to  us  which  Jesus  Christ  brings,   as   that 


240  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

indeed  we  have  left  earth  and  care  and  sin  at  the  foot 
of  the  mount,  with  the  asses  and  the  servants,  and 
have  our  faces  set  to  the  lofty  sweetnesses  of  our 
'  Father's  house '  ?  *  Blessed  are  they  that  dwell  in 
Thy  house,'  and  no  less  blessed  are  they  'in  whose 
hearts  are  the  ways '  that  lead  to  it. 

Then  let  me  remind  you  how  Zion  contrasts  with 
Sinai,  and  thus  suggests  the  thought  that  a  true 
Christian  life,  based  upon  faith,  has  a  communion 
with  God  which  is  darkened  by  no  dread,  nor  disturbed 
by  consciousness  of  unforgiven  sin.  We  have  set 
against  each  other  the  terrors  of  that  theophany  on 
Mount  Sinai,  attendant  on,  or  rather  precedent  to,  the 
giving  of  the  law — the  mountain  wrapped  in  smoke; 
in  the  heart  of  the  wreathing  blackness  the  flashing 
fire;  from  out  of  the  midst  of  it  the  long-drawn 
trumpet  blasts,  the  proclamation  of  the  coming  of  the 
King ;  and  then  the  voice  which,  divine  as  it  was, 
froze  the  marrow  of  the  hearers'  bones,  that  they 
entreated  that  no  words  like  these  should  any  more 
fall  on  their  trembling  ears. 

That  is  the  one  picture.  The  other  shows  us  the 
mount  where  the  King  dwells,  serene  and  peaceful, 
the  clouds  far  below  the  horizon ;  the  flashing  fire 
changed  into  lambent  light ;  the  blast  of  the  trumpet 
stilled;  the  dread  voice  changed  into  a  voice  'that 
speaketh  better  things'  than  were  heard  amidst  the 
granite  cliffs  of  the  wilderness. 

And  so  in  vivid,  picturesque  form  the  writer  gathers 
up  the  one  great  contrast  between  the  revelation  of 
which  the  message  was  law  and  its  highest  result 
the  consciousness  of  sin  and  the  shrinking  that  ensued, 
and  the  other  of  which  the  inmost  heart  is  love,  and 
the  issue  the  attraction  of  hearts  by  the  magnetism 


vs. 22  23]  WITH  WHOM  FAITH  LIVES     241 

of  its  grace.  The  old  fable  of  a  mountain  of  loadstone 
which  drew  ships  at  sea  to  its  cliffs  is  true  of  this 
Mount  Zion,  which  is  exalted  above  the  mountains 
that  it  may  draw  hearts  tossing  on  the  restless  sea  of 
life  to  the  '  fair  havens  '  beneath  its  sheltering  height. 
There  is  no  dread,  though  there  is  reverence,  and  no 
fear,  though  there  is  awe,  in  the  approach  of  those  who 
come  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  live  beneath  the  smile 
of  their  reconciled  God  and  Father.  'Ye  are  come 
unto  Mount  Zion,'  the  dwelling-place  of  the  living  God, 
from  whose  lips  there  will  steal  into  the  ears  and  the 
hearts  of  those  who  keep  near  Him,  gracious  words 
of  consolation,  so  thrilling,  so  soothing,  so  enlightening, 
so  searching,  so  encouraging,  that  they  which  hear 
them  shall  say,  'Speak  yet  again,  that  I  may  be 
blessed.' 

And  then  there  is  the  other  aspect  of  this  scene 
where  faith  lives.  '  Ye  are  come  unto  the  city  of  the 
living  God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.'  I  need  not 
remind  you  of  how  much  we  hear  in  this  Epistle  in 
reference  to  that  city.  It  is  generally  set  forth  as 
being  yet  to  come,  as  being  the  object  of  seeking 
rather  than  of  possession.  But  the  fact  is  that  there 
are  two  aspects  of  it.  In  one  it  is  future,  in  the  other 
it  is  present.  The  general  idea  to  be  attached  to  it  is 
simply  that  of  the  order  and  social  state  of  those  who 
love  and  serve  God.  Here,  in  this  part  of  my  text, 
we  have  to  deal  with  the  city  rather  than  with  its 
inhabitants.  They  follow  thereafter,  but,  so  far  as  we 
can  separate  between  the  two,  we  have  just  this  idea 
enforced  in  the  words  that  I  am  now  commenting 
upon — viz.,  that  the  lowliest  life,  knit,  as  it  seems  to 
be,  by  so  many  bonds  to  the  perishable  associations 
and  affinities  of  earth,  yet,  if  it  be  a  life  of  faith  in 


242  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

Jesus  Christ,  has  its  true  affinities  and  relationships 
beyond,  and  not  here.  *We  have  our  citizenship  in 
heaven,'  says  the  Apostle,  •  from  whence  also  we  look 
for  the  Saviour.'  And  every  Christian  man  and 
woman  is  therefore  bound  to  two  or  three  very  plain 
duties. 

If  you  are  living  by  faith,  you  do  not  belong  to  this 
order  in  the  midst  of  which  you  find  yourself.  See 
that  you  keep  vivid  the  consciousness  that  you  do 
not.  Cultivate  the  sense  of  detachment  from  the 
present,  of  not  being  absorbed  by,  or  belonging  to, 
things  which  are  not  coeval  with  yourself,  and  from 
all  of  which  you  will  have  to  pass.  Cultivate  the 
sense  of  having  your  true  home  beyond  the  seas ;  and 
look  to  it  as  emigrants  and  colonists  in  a  far-off  land 
do  to  the  old  country,  as  being  home.  Live  by  the 
laws  of  your  own  city,  and  not  by  those  that  run  in 
the  community  in  which  you  dwell.  You  are  under 
another  jurisdiction.  The  examples,  the  maxims  of 
low  earthly  prudence,  or  even  of  a  somewhat  higher 
earthly  morality,  are  not  your  laws.  You  are  not 
bound  to  do  as  the  people  round  about  you  do.  •! 
appeal  unto  Csesar.'  I  take  my  orders  from  him.  I 
send  my  despatches  home,  and  report  to  headquarters, 
and  if  I  get  approbation  thence,  it  does  not  matter  what 
the  people  amongst  whom  I  dwell  think  about  me. 
Make  your  investments  at  home.  The  Jews  invented 
banking  and  letters  of  credit  in  order  that  they  might 
the  more  easily  shift  their  wealth  from  one  land  to 
another  as  exigencies  required.  We  are  strangers 
where  we  are.  Do  not  put  your  property  into  the 
country  in  which  you  live  as  an  alien,  and  lock  it  up 
there ;  but  remit,  as  you  can  do,  to  the  land  where 
you    are    going,    and    to  which  you    belong.      Home 


vs.  22, 23]  WITH  WHOM  FAITH  LIVES      243 

securities  are  a  good  deal  better  than  foreign  ones. 
*  Ye  are  come  to  the  city  of  the  living  God.'  *  Lay  not 
up  for  yourselves  treasures  on  earth.' 

II.  And  now  let  me  turn  to  the  other  thought  here- 
with whom  does  faith  live? 

I  need  not  trouble  you  with  merely  expository 
remarks  upon  the  diversity  of  arrangements  which  is 
possible  in  the  second  half  of  my  text.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  just  as  the  scene  of  the  life  of  faith  has  been 
represented  in  a  twofold  and  yet  closely  connected 
form  as  Mount  Zion  and  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  so 
the  companions  of  that  life  are  also  represented  in  a 
twofold  and  yet  closely  connected  form. 

A  slight  alteration  in  the  punctuation  and  order  of 
the  words  in  our  text  brings  out,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
the  writer's  idea.  Suppose  you  put  a  comma  after 
'innumerable  company,'  and  substitute  for  that  phrase 
the  original  Greek  word,  so  reading  '  and  to  myriads,' 
and  then  pause  there.  That  is  the  general  definition, 
on  which  follows  the  division  of  the  'myriads'  into 
two  parts;  one  of  which  is  'the  general  assembly  of 
angels,'  and  the  other  is  the  *  Church  of  the  firstborn 
which  are  written  in  heaven.'  So  then,  of  companions 
for  us,  in  our  lonely  earthly  life,  there  be  two  sorts, 
and  as  to  both  of  them  the  condition  of  recognisiug 
and  enjoying  their  society  is  the  same — viz.,  the 
exercise  of  faith. 

Now  the  word  rendered  'general  assembly'  has  a 
grander  idea  in  it  than  that.  It  is  the  technical  word 
employed  in  classic  Greek  for  the  festal  meetings  of  a 
nation  at  their  great  games  or  other  solemn  occasions, 
and  always  carries  in  it  the  idea  of  joy  as  well  as  of 
society.  And  so  here  the  writer  would  have  us  think 
of  one  part  of  that  great  city,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem, 


244  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

as,  if  I  may  so  say,  the  dwelling-place  of  a  loftier  race 
of  creatures  whose  life  is  immortal  and  pure  joy  ;  and 
that  we,  even  we,  have  some  connection  with  them. 
In  an  earlier  part  of  this  letter  we  read  that  they  are 
all  '  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  to  them 
that  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation.'  But  here  the  ministra- 
tion is  not  referred  to,  simply  the  fact  of  union  and 
communion. 

I  am  not  going  to  enter  at  any  length  upon  that 
subject,  concerning  which  we  know  but  very  little. 
But  still  it  seems  to  me  that  our  ordinary  type  of 
Christian  belief  loses  a  great  deal  because  it  gives  so 
little  heed  to  the  numerous  teachings  of  the  New 
Testament  in  regard  to  the  reality  of  the  existence  of 
such  beings,  and  of  the  tie  that  unites  them  with 
lowly  believers  here.  All  the  servants  of  the  King  are 
friends  of  one  another.  And  howsoever  many  they 
may  be,  and  howsoever  high  above  us  in  present 
stature  any  may  tower,  and  howsoever  impossible  it 
be  for  us  to  see  the  glancing  and  hear  the  winnowing 
of  their  silver  wings,  as  they  flash  upon  errands  of 
obedience  to  Him,  and  rejoice  to  hearken  to  the  voice 
of  His  word,  there  is  joy  in  the  true  belief  that  the 
else  waste  places  of  the  universe  are  filled  with  those 
who,  in  their  loftiness,  rejoice  to  bend  to  us,  saying, 
•  I  am  thy  fellow  servant,  and  of  them  which  worship 
God.' 

Brethren,  we  have  a  better  face  brightening  the 
unseen  than  any  angel  face.  But  just  because  Jesus 
Christ  fills  the  unseen  for  us,  in  Him  we  are  united  to 
all  those  of  whom  He  is  the  Lord,  and  He  is  Lord  of 
men  as  well  as  angels.  So  if  the  eyes  of  our  hearts 
are  opened,  we,  too,  may  see  'the  mountain  full  of 
chariots  of  fire  and  horses  of  fire  round  about'  the 


vs.  22, 23]  WITH  WHOM  FAITH  LIVES      245 

believing  soul.  And  we,  too,  may  come  to  tlie  joyful 
assembly  of  the  angels,  whose  joy  is  all  the  more 
poignant  and  deep  when  they,  the  elder  brethren,  .see 
the  prodigals  return. 

But  the  second  group  of  companions  is  probably 
the  more  important  for  us.  '  Ye  are  come,'  says  the 
text,  not  only  to  the  angelic  beings  that  cluster 
round  His  throne  in  joyful  harmony,  but  also  'to 
the  Church  of  the  firstborn,  which  are  written  in 
heaven.'  And,  seeing  that  the  names  are  in  heaven, 
that  means,  evidently,  men  who  themselves  are  here 
upon  earth. 

I  have  not  time  to  dwell  upon  the  great  ideas  which 
are  here  contained  in  the  designation  of  the  com- 
munity of  believing  souls ;  I  only  remind  you  that 
probably  the  word  '  church '  is  not  so  much  employed 
here  in  its  distinct  ecclesiastical  sense  (for  there 
are  no  ecclesiastical  phrases  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews),  as  with  allusion  to  the  assembly  of  the 
Israelites  beneath  Mount  Sinai,  the  contrast  with 
which  colours  the  whole  of  the  context.  It  means, 
therefore,  in  general,  simply  the  assembly  of  the 
firstborn.  Can  there  be  more  than  one  firstborn  in  a 
family  ?  Yes  !  In  this  family  there  can,  for  it  is  a 
name  here  not  pointing  to  a  temporary  order,  but  to 
dignity  and  prerogative.  The  firstborn  had  the  right 
of  inheritance ;  the  firstborn  was  sanctified  to  the 
Lord;  the  firstborn,  by  his  primogeniture,  was  de- 
stined in  the  old  system  to  be  priest  and  king.  All 
Israel  collectively  was  regarded  as  the  firstborn  of  the 
Lord.  We,  if  our  hearts  are  knit  to  Him  who  is  pre- 
eminently firstborn  amongst  many  brethren,  obtain, 
by  virtue  of  our  union  with  Him,  the  rights  and 
privileges,  the  obligations  and  responsibilities,  of  the 


24G  HEBREWS  [ch.  xil 

eldest  sons  of  the  family  of  God.  We  inherit;  we 
ought  to  be  sanctified.  It  is  for  us,  as  the  '  first  fruits 
of  His  creatures,'  to  bring  other  men  to  Him,  that 
through  the  Church  the  world  may  reach  its  goal,  and 
creation  may  become  that  which  God  intended  it  to  be. 

These  firstborn  have  their  names  written  in  heaven 
— inscribed  on  the  register  of  the  great  city.  And  to 
that  great  community,  invisible  like  the  other  realities 
in  my  text,  and  not  conterminous  with  any  visible 
society  such  as  the  existing  visible  Church,  all  those 
belong  and  come  who  are  knit  together  by  faith  in  the 
one  Lord. 

So,  dear  friends,  it  is  for  us  to  realise,  in  the  midst, 
perhaps,  of  loneliness,  the  tie  that  knits  us  to  every 
heart  that  finds  in  Jesus  Christ  what  we  do.  In  times 
when  we  seem  to  stand  in  a  minority ;  in  times  when 
we  are  tormented  by  uncongenial  surroundings ;  when 
we  are  tempted  by  lower  society;  when  we  are  dis- 
posed to  say,  'I  am  alone,  with  none  to  lean  upon,'  it 
does  us  good  to  think  that,  not  only  are  there  angels 
in  heaven  who  may  have  charge  concerning  us,  but 
that,  all  over  the  world,  there  are  scattered  brethren 
whose  existence  is  a  comfort,  though  we  have  never 
clasped  their  hands. 

Such,  then,  is  the  scene,  and  such  is  the  society,  in 
which  we  may  all  dwell.  Christian  men  and  women, 
do  you  make  conscience  of  realising  all  this  by  faith, 
by  contemplation,  by  direct  endeavours  to  pierce 
beyond  the  surface  and  shows  of  things  to  the  realities 
that  are  unseen  ?  See  to  it  that  you  avail  yourself  of 
all  the  power,  the  peace,  the  blessing  which  will  be 
yours  in  the  degree  in  which  your  faith  makes  these 
the  home  and  companions  of  your  lives. 

How  noble  the  lowest  life  may  become,  like  some 


V.  23]  FAITH'S  ACCESS  TO  THE  JUDGE    247 

poor,  rough  sea-shell  with  a  gnarled  and  dimly 
coloured  exterior,  tossed  about  in  the  surge  of  a 
stormy  sea,  or  anchored  to  a  rock,  but  when  opened 
all  iridescent  with  rainbow  sheen  within,  and  bearing 
a  pearl  of  great  price !  So,  to  outward  seeming,  my 
life  may  be  rough  and  solitary  and  inconspicuous  and 
sad,  but,  in  inner  reality,  it  may  have  come  to  Mount 
Zion,  the  city  of  the  living  God,  and  have  angels  for 
its  guardians,  and  all  the  firstborn  for  its  brethren  and 
companions. 


FAITH'S  ACCESS  TO  THE  JUDGE,  AND 
HIS  ATTENDANTS 

'  Ye  are  come  ...  to  God  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made 
perfect.'— Heb.  xii.  23. 

The  principle  of  arrangement  in  this  grand  section  of 
this  letter  is  obscure,  and  I  am  afraid  that  I  cannot 
cast  much,  if  any,  light  upon  it.  We  might,  at  first 
sight,  have  expected  that  the  two  clauses  of  our  present 
text  should  have  been  inverted,  so  as  to  bring  all  the 
constituent  parts  of  '  the  city  of  the  living  God '  closely 
together — viz.,  '  the  angels,'  the  members  of  the  militant 
Church  on  earth,  and  those  of  the  triumphant  Church 
in  heaven ;  and  also  to  bring  together  '  God  the  Judge 
of  all,'  and  '  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant.* 
But  the  arrangement,  as  it  stands  in  our  text,  may  be 
compared  profitably  with  that  of  the  preceding  verses, 
which  we  were  considering  in  the  last  sermon.  There, 
as  here,  the  allusion  to  the  immediate  presence  of  God 
passed  at  once  into  the  reference  to  the  citizens  of 
the  heavenly  Jerusalem.  And  just  as  there  Zion,  the 
palace,  was  immediately  connected  with  the  city   of 


248  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

the  living  God,  so  hero  the  writer,  harking  back,  as  it 
were,  to  his  original  starting-point,  no  sooner  names 
'God  the  Judge'  than  he  jiasscs  on  to  set  before  us 
*  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect.'  In  the  earlier 
clauses  we  have  had  the  more  general  reference  to  the 
palace  and  the  city  around  it.  Here,  if  I  may  so  say, 
we  pass  within  the  palace  gates,  and  the  writer  tells 
us  what  we  find  there.  This  interweaving  of  the 
presence  of  God  with  that  of  the  creatures  that  live 
in  His  love  witnesses  to  the  great  truth  that  our  God 
dwells  in  no  isolated  supremacy,  but  in  the  midst  of 
a  blessed  society;  and  that  the  solitary  souls  who  find 
their  way  into  His  presence  have  a  welcome,  not  only 
from  Him,  but  from  all  their  brethren  of  His  great 
family. 

So  the  arrangement  may  not  be  so  inexplicable  as, 
at  first  sight,  it  strikes  us  as  being,  if  it  suggests  to 
us  the  close  and  indissoluble  connection  between  God 
Himself  and  all  those  who,  in  every  place,  whether 
the  place  above  or  the  place  beneath,  call  upon  the 
name  of  Him  who  is  both  their  God  and  ours.  In 
dealing  with  these  words,  I  have  simply  to  consider 
these  two  ideas  thus  set  before  us. 

I.  Faith  plants  us  at  the  very  bar  of  God. 

*Ye  are  come  to  God  the  Judge  of  all.'  Now,  it  is 
to  be  observed  that,  more  accurately,  the  words  might 
be  rendered,  'Ye  are  come  to  the  God  of  all  as 
Judge';  for  the  point  which  the  writer  wishes  to 
bring  out  is  not  so  much  the  general  idea  of  the 
divine  presence,  as  that  presence  considered  under  a 
specific  aspect,  and  referring  to  one  mode  of  His 
action — viz.,  the  judicial.  It  is  further  to  be  noticed 
that  the  judgment  which  is  here  spoken  about  is  not, 
as  the  very  language,  *Ye  are  come  to  the  Judge,* 


V.  23]  FAITH'S  ACCESS  TO  THE  JUDGE    249 

implies,  future,  but  present.  The  Old  Testament,  with 
continual  reference  to  which  this  letter  is  saturated, 
has  a  great  deal  more  to  say  about  the  present 
continuous  judgment  which  God  works  all  through 
the  ages  than  about  the  final  future  judgment.  And, 
in  accordance,  not  only  with  the  language  of  our  text, 
which  makes  coming  a  present  thing,  but,  in  accordance 
also  with  the  whole  tone  of  the  Old  Testament,  we 
should  recognise  here,  not  so  much  a  reference  to  the 
final  tribunal  before  which  all  mankind  must  stand 
(at  which  the  Judge  is  characteristically  represented 
in  the  New  Testament  as  being,  not  God  the  Father, 
but  Jesus  Christ),  as  to  the  continual  judgment,  both 
in  the  sense  of  decision  as  to  character  and  infliction 
of  consequences,  which  is  being  exercised  now  by  the 
God  of  all. 

So,  then,  the  first  thought  that  I  would  suggest 
from  this  idea  is,  Here  is  a  truth  which  it  is  the  ofiice 
of  faith  to  realise  continually  in  our  daily  lives. 
Your  loving  access  to  God,  Christian  men  and  women, 
has  brought  you  right  under  the  eye  of  the  Judge, 
and,  though  there  be  no  terror  in  our  approach  to 
that  tribunal,  there  ought  to  be  a  wholesome  awe 
as  the  permanent  attitude  of  our  spirits,  the  awe 
which  is  the  very  opposite  of  the  cowering  dread 
which  hath  torment.  He  would  be  a  bold  criminal 
who  would  commit  crimes  in  the  very  judgment-hall 
and  before  the  face  of  his  judge.  And  that  must  be 
a  very  defective  Christian  faith  which,  like  the  so- 
called  faith  of  many  amongst  us,  goes  through  life 
and  sins  in  entire  oblivion  of  the  fact  that  it  stands  in 
the  very  presence  of  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth.  Oh, 
if  we  could  rend  the  veil  as  death  will  rend  it,  and  see 
the  things  which  are,  as  faith  will  help  us  to  see  them 


250  HEBREWS  [cH.  xn. 

— for  it  thins,  if  it  does  not  tear,  the  envious  curtain 
between — would  it  be  possible  that  we  should  live 
the  low,  mean,  selfish,  earthly,  sinful  lives,  devoured 
by  anxieties,  defaced  by  stains,  depressed  by  trivial 
sorrows,  which,  alas!  so  many  of  us  do  live?  'Ye 
are  come  .  .  .  unto  God  the  Judge  of  all.'  *If  ye 
call  Him  Father,  who,  without  respect  of  persons, 
judgeth  according  to  every  man's  work,  pass  the  time 
of  your  sojourning  here  in  fear.' 

Then,  again,  notice  that  this  judgment  of  God  is 
one  w^hich  a  Christian  man  should  joyfully  accept. 
'The  Lord  will  judge  His  people,'  says  one  of  the 
psalms.  '  You  only  have  I  known  ot  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth ;  therefore  will  I  punish  you 
for  your  iniquities,'  says  one  of  the  prophets.  Such 
sayings  represent  this  present  judgment  as  inevitable, 
just  because  of  the  close  connection  into  which  true 
faith  brings  a  man  with  his  Father  in  heaven. 
Inevitable,  and  likewise  most  blessed  and  desirable, 
for  in  the  thought  are  included  all  the  methods  by 
which,  in  providence,  and  by  ministration  of  His 
truth  and  of  His  Spirit,  God  reveals  to  us  our  hidden 
meannesses;  and  delivers  us  sometimes,  even  by  the 
consequences  which  accrue  from  them,  from  the 
burden  and  power  of  our  sin. 

So,  then,  the  office  of  faith  in  regard  to  this 
continuous  judgment  which  God  is  exercising  upon  us 
because  He  loves  us  is,  first  of  all,  to  open  our  hearts 
to  it  by  confession,  by  frank  communion,  by  referring 
all  our  actions  to  Him  to  court  that  investigation. 
That  judgment  is  no  mere  knowledge  by  cold  omni- 
science, such  as  a  heathen  conception  of  the  divine 
eye  might  make  it  to  be ;  but  just  as  a  careful 
gardener  will  go   over  his  rose-trees,  and  the  more 


V.  23]  FAITH'S  ACCESS  TO  THE  JUDGE    251 

carefully  the  more  precious  they  are  in  his  sight,  to 
pick  from  each  nestling-place  at  the  junction  of  the 
leaves  with  the  stem  the  tiny  insects  that  are  sucking 
out  the  sap  and  destroying  them,  so  God  will  search 
our  hearts  in  order  to  pluck  from  these  the  crawling 
evils  which,  microscopic  and  tiny  as  they  may  be,  will 
yet,  in  their  multitude  innumerable,  be  destructive  of 
our  spirits'  lives. 

It  is  a  gospel  when  we  say,  'The  Lord  will  judge 
His  people.'  Therefore  in  many  a  psalm  we  have  the 
writers  spreading  themselves  out  before  God,  and 
beseeching  Him  to  come  and  search  them,  and  try 
them,  and  sift  them  through  His  sieve,  and  know 
them  altogether,  in  the  sure  confidence  that  where- 
soever He  beholds  an  evil  He  will  be  ready  to  cure  it, 
and  that  whosoever  spreadeth  out  his  sin  before  God 
will  be  lightened  of  the  burden  of  his  sin. 

This  merciful  judgment,  which  is,  in  fact,  all 
directed,  to  the  perfecting  and  sanctifying  of  its 
subjects,  reaches  its  end  in  the  measure  in  which  we 
register  its  decisions  in  our  consciences.  God  writes 
His  mind  about  us  on  them,  and  when  they  speak 
they  are  only  speaking  an  echo  of  the  sentence  that 
has  been  pronounced  from  that  loftier  tribunal. 
Therefore,  whosoever  professeth  himself  to  be  a 
Christian  and  does  anything,  be  it  great  or  small, 
which  his  conscience  rebukes  when  done,  and  pro- 
hibited before  it  was  done,  that  man  is  despising  the 
judgment  of  God,  and  bringing  down  upon  himself 
the  condemnation  which  follows  despised  judgment. 
'If  we  should  judge  ourselves  we  should  not  be 
judged.'  Reverence  your  consciences:  they  are  the 
echo  of  the  Judge's  voice;  peruse  their  records;  they 
are  the  register  of  the  Judge's  sentence ;  and  when- 


252  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

soever  that  inward  voice  speaks,  bow  before  it  and 
say, '  Lord !  Thy  servant  heareth.' 

And  then,  further,  remember  that  this  judgment  is 
one  that  demands  our  thankful  acceptance  of  the 
discipline  which  it  puts  in  force.  If  we  knew  our- 
selves we  should  bless  God  for  our  sorrows.  These  are 
His  special  means  of  drawing  His  children  away  from 
their  evil.  '  When  we  are  chastened,  we  are  chastened 
of  the  Lord  that  we  should  not  be  condemned  with 
the  world.'  Oh !  there  would  be  less  impatience,  less 
blank  amazement  when  suffering  comes  to  us,  less 
vain  and  impotent  regrets  for  vanished  blessings,  if 
we  saw  in  all  the  dealings  of  our  Father's  hands  the 
results  of  His  judgment,  and  believed  that  it  is  better 
for  us  to  be  separated,  though  it  be  with  violence  and 
much  bleeding  of  torn-away  hearts,  from  our  idols 
than  that  our  idolatry  should  destroy  us  and  mar  them. 
'Whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth.'  This  judg- 
ment is  not  only  the  merciful  separation  of  us  from 
our  sins,  but  it  is  also  a  judgment  on  our  behalf. 

The  office  of  the  early  Jewish  judges  was  not  only 
the  judicial  one  which  we  mean  by  the  word,  but  was 
much  wider,  and  some  trace  of  that  wider  idea  runs 
through  almost  all  the  Old  Testament  references  to 
the  divine  judgment.  It  comes  to  mean,  not  merely  a 
decision  adverse  or  favourable,  as  the  case  may  be,  as 
to  the  moral  character  of  its  subjects,  but  it  also  sub- 
stantially means  pleading  their  cause,  defending  their 
right,  intervening  for  them,  and  so  in  many  a  psalm 
you  will  find  such  petitions  as  this,  'Judge  me,  O 
Lord;  for  I  am  poor  and  needy.  Plead  my  cause 
against  them  which  rise  up  against  me.'  And  the 
same  conception  of  the  Judge's  office  appears  in  one 
of  our  Lord's  parables,  familiar  to  us  all,  in  which  we 


7. 23]  FAITH'S  ACCESS  TO  THE  JUDGE    253 

are  told  that  'the  Lord  will  judge  His  own  elect, 
though  He  bear  long  with  them.' 

Thus,  another  of  the  blessed  thoughts  that  come  out 
of  this  conception  of  our  approach  to  '  the  Judge  of 
all '  is  that  we  may  confidently  commit  our  cause  to 
Him,  and  leave  our  vindication  in  His  hands.  So, 
abstinence  from  self-assertion,  from  self-vindication, 
from  vengeance  or  recompense,  patience,  courage, 
consolation,  strength,  all  these  virtues  will  be  ours  if 
we  understand  to  whom  we  come  by  our  faith,  and 
can  behold,  on  the  throne  of  the  universe.  One  who 
will  plead  our  cause,  and  undertake  for  us  whensoever 
we  are  burdened  and  oppressed. 

U.  Secondly,  Faith  carries  us  while  living  to  the 
society  of  the  living  dead. 

'  The  Judge  of  all,  and  the  spirits  of  just  men  made 
perfect.'  Immediately  on  the  thought  of  God  arising 
in  the  writer's  mind,  there  rises  also  the  blessed 
thought  of  the  blessed  company  in  the  centre  of  whom 
He  lives  and  reigns.  We  can  say  little  about  that 
subject,  and  perhaps  the  less  we  say  the  more  we  shall 
understand,  and  the  more  deeply  we  shall  feel.  We 
get  glimpses  but  no  clear  vision,  as  when  a  flock  of 
birds  turn  in  their  rapid  flight,  and  for  a  moment  the 
sun  glances  on  their  white  wings;  and  then,  with 
another  turn,  they  drift  away,  spots  of  blackness  in 
the  blue.  So  we  see  but  for  a  moment  as  the 
light  falls,  and  then  lose  the  momentary  glory,  but 
we  may  at  least  reverently  note  the  exalted  words 
here. 

'The  spirits  of  .  .  .  men  made  perfect.'  That  is  to 
say,  they  dwell  freed  from  the  incubus  and  limitations, 
and  absolved  from  the  activities,  of  a  bodily  organisa- 
tion.   We  cannot  understand  such  a  condition.    To  us 


254  HEBREWS  [cH.xn. 

it  may  seem  to  mean  passivity  or  almost  unconscious- 
ness, but  we  know,  as  another  New  Testament  writer 
has  told  us,  that  to  be  absent  from  the  body  is  to  be 
present  with  the  Lord ;  and  that  in  some  deep,  and  to  us 
now  undiscoverablc,  fashion,  that  which  the  corporeal 
frame  does  for  men  here,  immersed  in  the  material 
world,  there  the  encircling  Christ  in  whom  they  rest 
docs  for  them.  We  know  little  more,  but  we  have  a 
glimpse  of  a  land  of  deep  peace  in  which  repose  is  not 
passivity  nor  unconsciousness,  any  more  than  service 
is  weariness.  And  there  we  have  to  leave  it,  knowing 
only  this,  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  exist  and 
to  be,  in  a  relative  sense,  perfected  without  a  body. 
Then,  further,  these  spirits  are  '  perfect.' 
The  writer  has  said,  at  the  close  of  the  preceding 
chapter,  that  the  ancient  saints  'without  us  should 
not  be  made  perfect.'  And  here  he  employs  the  same 
word  with  distant  reference,  as  I  suppose,  to  his 
previous  declaration.  From  which  I  infer  that  that 
old  thought  is  true,  that  Jesus  Christ  shot  some  rays 
of  Ilis  victorious  and  all-reconciling  power  from  His 
Cross  into  the  regions  of  darkness,  and  brought  thence 
those  who  had  been  waiting  for  His  coming  through 
many  a  long  age.  A  great  painter  has  left  on  the  walls 
of  a  little  cell  in  his  Florentine  convent  a  picture  of 
the  victorious  Christ,  white-robed  and  banner-bearing, 
breaking  down  the  iron  gates  that  shut  in  the  dark, 
rocky  cave ;  and  flocking  to  Him,  with  outstretched 
hands  of  eager  welcome,  the  whole  long  series  from 
the  first  man  downwards,  hastening  to  rejoice  in  His 
light,  and  to  participate  in  His  redemption. 

So  the  ancient  Church  was  'perfected'  in  Christ; 
but  the  words  refer,  not  only  to  those  Old  Testament 
patriarchs  and  saints,  but  to  all  who,  up  to  the  time 


V.23]  FAITH'S  ACCESS  TO  THE  JUDGE   255 

of  the  writer's  composition  of  his  letter,  'slept  in 
Jesus.'  They  have  reached  their  goal  in  Him.  The 
end  for  which  they  were  created  has  been  attained. 
They  are  in  the  summer  of  their  powers,  and  full- 
grown  adults,  whilst  we  here,  the  maturest  and  the 
wisest,  the  strongest  and  the  holiest,  are  but  as  babes 
in  Christ. 

But  yet  that '  perfecting '  does  not  exclude  progress, 
continuous  through  all  the  ages ;  and  especially  it 
does  not  exclude  one  great  step  in  advance  which,  as 
Scripture  teaches  us,  will  be  taken  when  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  is  granted.  Corporeity  is  the  perfect- 
ing humanity.  Body,  soul,  and  spirit,  these  make 
the  full-summed  man  in  all  his  powers.  And  so  the 
souls  beneath  the  altar,  clothed  in  white,  and  rapt 
in  felicity,  do  yet  wait  'for  the  adoption,  even  the 
redemption  of  the  body.' 

Mark,  further,  that  these  spirits  perfected  would  not 
have  been  perfected  there  unless  they  had  been  made 
just  here.  That  is  the  first  step,  without  which 
nothing  in  death  has  any  tendency  to  ennoble  or  exalt 
men.  If  we  are  ever  to  come  to  the  perfecting  of  the 
heavens,  we  must  begin  with  the  justifying  that  takes 
place  on  earth. 

Let  me  point  you  to  one  other  consideration,  bearing 
not  so  much  on  the  condition  as  on  the  place  of  these 
perfected  spirits.  It  is  very  significant,  as  I  tried  to 
point  out,  that  they  should  be  closely  associated  in 
our  text  with  'God  the  Judge  of  all.'  Is  there  any 
hint  there  that  men  who  have  been  redeemed,  who 
being  unjust,  have  been  made  just,  and  have  had  ex- 
perience of  restoration  and  of  the  misery  of  departure, 
shall,  in  the  ultimate  order  of  things,  stand  nearer  the 
throne  than  unfallen  spirits,  and  teach  angels?    It  is 


256  HEBREWS  [ch.xii. 

the  'just  man  made  perfect,'  and  not  the  festal 
assembly  of  the  angels,  that  are  brought  into  connec- 
tion here  with  '  the  Judge  of  all.'  Is  there  any  hint 
that  in  some  sense  these  perfected  spirits  are  assessors 
of  God  in  His  great  judgment  ?  'Te  shall  sit  on  twelve 
thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,'  seems  to 
point  in  that  direction.  But  the  ground  is  precarious, 
and  I  only  point  to  the  words  in  passing  as  possibly 
affording  a  foothold  for  a  '  perhaps.' 

But  the  more  important  consideration  is  the  real 
unity  between  poor  souls  here  who  are  knit  to  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect  who 
stand  so  close  to  the  judgment-seat. 

Ah,  brethren !  we  have  to  alter  the  meaning  of  the 
words 'present'  and  'absent'  when  we  come  to  speak 
of  spiritual  realities.  The  gross  localised  conceptions 
that  are  appropriate  to  material  space,  and  to 
transitory  time,  have  nothing  to  do  with  that  higher 
religion.  It  is  no  mere  piece  of  rhetoric  or  sentiment 
to  say  that  where  our  treasure  is,  there  are  our  hearts, 
and  where  our  hearts  are  there  are  we. 

Love  has  no  localities.  It  knits  together  two 
between  whom  oceans  wide  roll;  it  knits  together 
saints  on  earth  and  saints  in  heaven.  To  talk  of  place 
is  irrelevant  in  reference  to  such  a  union ;  for  if  our 
love,  our  aims,  our  hopes  be  the  same,  we  are  together. 
And  if  they  on  the  upper  side,  and  we  on  the  lower, 
grasp  each  the  outstretched  hand  of  the  same  God, 
then  we  are  one  in  Him,  and  the  same  life  will  tingle 
through  our  earthly  frames  and  through  their  per- 
fected spirits.  He  is  the  centre  of  the  great  wheel 
whose  spokes  are  light  and  blessedness ;  and  all  who 
stand  around  Him  are  brought  into  unity  by  their 
common  relation  to  the  centre. 


V.23]  MESSENGER  OF  THE  COVENANT   257 

Our  sorrows  would  be  less  sorrowful,  our  loss  lesa 
utter,  if  we  truly  believed  that  while  apart  we  are 
still  together.  Our  courage  and  our  hope  would  rise 
if  we  came  closer  in  loving  contemplation  and  believ- 
ing thought  to  the  present  blessedness  of  those  once 
our  fellow-travellers,  who,  weak  as  we,  have  entered 
into  rest.  Heaven  itself  would  gain  some  touch  of 
true  attractiveness  if  we  more  clearly  saw,  and  more 
thankfully  felt,  that  there  is  'the  Judge  of  all,'  and 
there  also  '  the  spirit  of  just  men  made  perfect.' 

But  howsoever  great  may  be  the  encouragement, 
the  consolation,  the  quieting  that  come  from  them,  let 
us  turn  away  our  eyes  from  the  surrounding  and 
lower  seats  to  fix  them  on  the  central  throne.  Let  us 
ever  realise  that  we  are  ever  in  our  great  Judge's  eye. 
Let  us  spread  out  our  hearts  for  His  scrutiny  and 
decision,  for  His  discipline  if  need  be.  Let  us  commit 
to  Him  our  cause,  and,  in  the  peace  that  comes  there- 
from, we  may  understand  why  it  was  that  psalmists  of 
old  called  upon  earth  to  rejoice  and  the  hills  to  be 
glad  because  He  '  cometh  to  judge  the  earth,  to  judge 
the  world  with  righteousness,  and  the  people  with  His 
truth.' 


THE  MESSENGER  OF  THE  COVENANT  AND 
ITS  SEAL 

'Ye  are  come  ...  to  Jesua  the  mediator  of  the  new  covenant,  and  to  the  blood 

of  sprinkling,  that  speaketh  better  things  than  that  of  Abel.'— Heb.  xii.  2i. 

In  previous  sermons  on  the  preceding  context,  we 
have  had  frequent  occasion  to  remark  on  the  parallel 
and  contrast  between  Sinai  and  Zion,  as  expressive  of 
the  difference  between    the    genius  of  Judaism  and 

B 


258  HEBREWS  [ch.  xn. 

Christianity,  whicTi  shapes  the  whole  of  this  section. 
That  contrast  and  parallel  are  most  obvious  at  its 
beginning  and  here  at  its  close. 

In  the  beginning  we  had  the  mountain  of  the  Law, 
swathed  in  darkness,  lit  by  flashing  flame,  contrasted 
with  the  sunny  slopes  of  Zion,  palace-crowned,  and 
the  wild  desert  set  in  opposition  to  the  city  of  peace 
that  clustered  round  the  foot  of  Zion's  Mount.  Here 
at  the  close  we  have  the  key-words  of  the  old  revela- 
tion laid  hold  of  and  applied  to  the  new.  Judaism 
was  a  covenant  in  the  form  of  a  law,  of  which  the 
terras  were  these:  'Do,  and  thou  shalt  live!'  The 
gospel  is  a  covenant  in  the  form  of  a  promise,  of 
which  the  tenor  is  'Believe  and  live;  live  and  do!' 
The  ancient  covenant  had  Moses  for  its  mediator, 
passing  between  the  mountain  and  the  plain.  The 
gospel  has  a  better  and  a  truer  link  of  union  between 
God  and  man  than  any  mere  man,  however  exalted, 
can  be.  The  ancient  system  had  its  sprinkled  blood, 
by  which  the  men  on  whom  it  fell  entered  into  the 
covenant,  and  were  ceremonially  sanctified.  The  new 
covenant  has  its  blood.  An  awful  voice  rolled  amongst 
the  peaks  of  Sinai.  That  'blood  of  sprinkling'  speaks 
too.  And  then  the  writer  blends  with  that  allusion 
another,  to  the  voice  of  the  blood  of  the  first  martyr, 
every  drop  of  which  cried  to  God  for  retribution, 
and  points  to  the  blood  of  the  more  innocent  Abel, 
every  drop  of  which  appeals  to  the  Father's  heart  for 
pardon. 

Now  it  may  be  said  that  thus  to  present  Christian 
truth  under  the  guise  of  the  symbols  of  an  ancient 
ceremonial  and  external  system  is  a  retrograde  step. 
And  some  people,  who  think  themselves  very  en- 
lightened, tell  us  that  the  time  is  past  for  looking  at 


V.24]  MESSENGER  OF  THE  COVENANT  259 

Christianity  from  such  a  point  of  view.  One  great 
man  has  let  himself  talk  about  'Hebrew  old  clothes.' 
I  am  very  much  mistaken  if  these  old  clothes  will  not 
turn  out  to  be  something  like  the  raiment  that  the 
Hebrews  wore  in  the  wilderness,  '  which  waxed  not 
old  for  forty  years,'  and  outlasted  a  great  many  suits 
that  other  people  had  cut  for  themselves.  We  have 
only  to  ponder  upon  these  emblems  until  they  become 
significant  to  us,  in  order  to  see  that,  instead  of  being 
antiquated  and  effete,  they  are  throbbing  with  life, 
and  fit  as  close  to  the  needs  of  to-day  as  ever  they  did. 
They  came  with  a  special  message,  no  doubt,  to  these 
men  to  whom  this  letter  was  first  addressed,  who  were 
by  descent  and  habit  Hebrews,  and  saturated  with 
the  law.  But  their  message  is  quite  as  much  to  you 
and  me;  and  I  desire  now  simply  to  bring  out  the 
large  and  permanent  meanings  which  lie  beneath 
them. 

I.  First,  then,  note  that  God's  revelation  to  us  is  in 
the  form  of  a  covenant. 

Now,  of  course,  when  we  talk  about  a  covenant  or 
compact  between  two  men,  we  mean  a  matter  of 
bargaining  on  the  terms  of  which  both  have  been 
consulted,  and  which  has  assumed  its  final  form  after 
negotiations  and  perhaps  compromise.  But  there 
are  necessarily  limitations  to  the  transference  of  all 
human  ideas  to  divine  relations.  One  such  limitation 
is  expressed  in  the  very  language  of  the  original.  The 
word  rendered  '  covenant '  suppresses  the  idea  of  con- 
junction, and  emjihasises  that  of  appointment.  By 
which  we  are  to  learn  that  the  covenant  which  God 
makes  with  man  is  of  His  own  settling  and  is  not  the 
result  of  mutual  giving  and  taking ;  that  men  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  determining  of  these  conditions; 


260  HEBREWS  [en.  xii. 

that  He  Himself  has  made  them,  and  that  He  is  bound 
by  them,  not  because  we  have  arranged  them  with 
Him,  but  because  He  has  announced  them  to  us.  With 
that  limitation  we  can  take  the  idea  and  apply  it  to 
the  relation  between  God  and  us,  established  in  the 
great  message  of  the  gospel. 

For  what  is  the  notion  that  underlies  the  old- 
fashioned,  and  to  some  of  you  obsolete  and  unwelcome 
word?  Why,  simply  this,  it  is  a  definite  disclosure 
of  God's  purpose  as  affecting  you  and  me,  by  which 
disclosure  He  is  prepared  to  stand  and  to  be  bound. 
It  is  a  revelation,  but  a  revelation  that  obliges  the 
Revealer  to  a  certain  course  of  conduct ;  or,  if  you 
would  rather  have  a  less  theological  word,  it  is  a 
system  of  promise  under  which  God  mercifully  has 
willed  that  we  should  live.  And  just  as  when  a  king 
gives  forth  a  proclamation,  he  is  bound  by  the  fact 
that  he  gave  it  forth,  so  God,  out  of  all  the  infinite 
possibilities  of  His  action,  condescends  to  tell  us  what 
His  line  is  to  be,  and  He  will  adhere  to  it.  He  lets  us 
see  the  works  of  the  clock,  if  I  may  so  say,  not  wholly, 
but  in  so  far  as  we  are  affected  by  His  action. 

What,  then,  are  the  terms  of  this  covenant?  We 
have  them  drawn  out,  first,  in  the  words  of  Jeremiah, 
who  apprehended,  when  he  was  dwelling  in  the  midst 
of  that  eternal  system,  that  it  could  not  be  a  final 
system  ;  and  next,  by  the  writer  of  this  letter  quoting 
the  prophet,  who,  in  the  midst  of  the  vanishing  of 
that  which  could  be  shaken,  saw  emerging,  like  the 
fairy  form  of  the  fabled  goddess  out  of  the  sea-foam, 
the  vast  and  permanent  outlines  of  a  nobler  system. 
The  promises  of  the  covenant  are,  then,  full  forgive- 
ness as  the  foundation  of  all,  and  built  upon  that,  a 
knowledge  of  God  inwardly  illuminating  and  making 


V.21]  MESSENGER  OF  THE  COVENANT  261 

a  man  inJoi^cndcnt  of  external  helps,  though  he  may 
sometimes  be  grateful  for  them ;  then  a  mutual  pos- 
session which  is  based  upon  these,  whereby  I,  even  I, 
can  venture  to  say,  God  is  mine,  and,  more  wonderful 
still,  I,  even  I,  can  venture  to  believe  that  He  bends 
down  from  heaven  and  says :  *  And  thou,  thou  art 
Mine  !'  and  then,  as  the  result  of  all — named  first,  but 
coming  last  in  the  order  of  nature — the  law  of  Ilis 
commandment  will  be  so  written  upon  the  heart  that 
delight  and  duty  are  spelt  with  the  same  letters,  and 
His  will  is  our  will.  These  are  the  elements,  or  you 
can  gather  them  all  up  into  one,  namely,  the  promise 
of  eternal  life — based  upon  forgiveness,  operating 
through  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  issuing  in  perfect 
conformity  to  His  blessed  will. 

If  these,  then,  be  the  articles  of  the  paction,  think 
for  a  moment  of  the  blessedness  that  lies  hived  in 
this  ancient,  and  to  some  of  us  musty,  thought  of  a 
covenant  of  God's.  It  gives  a  basis  for  knowledge. 
Unless  He  audibly  and  articulately  and  verifiably 
utters  His  mind  and  will,  I  know  not  where  men  are 
to  go  to  get  it.  Without  an  actual  revelation  from 
heaven,  of  other  nature,  of  clearer  contents,  of  more 
solid  certitude  than  the  revelations  that  may  have 
been  written  upon  the  tablets  of  our  hearts,  over 
which  we  have  too  often  scrawled  the  devil's  message, 
and  over  and  above  the  ambiguous  articles  that  may 
be  picked  out  and  pieced  together,  from  reflection 
upon  providence  and  nature,  we  need  something 
better  and  firmer,  more  comprehensively  and  more 
manifestly  authoritative,  before  we  are  entitled  to  say, 
•  Behold !  I  hnow  that  God  loves  me,  and  that  I  may 
put  my  trust  in  Him.'  Brethren !  I  for  my  part  believe 
that  between  agnosticism  on  that  side,  and  the  full 


262  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

evangelical  faith  of  the  New  Testament  in  a  super- 
natural revelation  on  this  side,  all  forms  of  so-called 
Christianity  which  shy  at  the  idea  of  a  supernatural 
revelation  are  destined  to  have  the  life  squeezed  out 
of  them,  and  that  what  will  be  left  will  bo  the  two 
logical  positions ;  first,  God,  if  there  be  a  God,  nevei 
spoke,  and  we  do  not  know  anything  about  Him  ;  and, 
second,  '  God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  spake  in  time  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the 
prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by 
His  Son.'  If  there  be  a  God  at  all,  and  if  there  be  in 
Him  any  love  and  any  righteousness,  it  is  infinitely  more 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  He  should  have  spoken  His 
mind  and  heart  to  men,  and  given  them  a  covenant  on 
which  they  can  reckon,  than  that  He  has  been  from 
the  beginning  a  dumb  God,  that  never  opened  His 
mouth  with  a  word  of  guidance  or  of  sympathy  for  the 
sons  of  men.  Believe  that  who  may  ;  I  cannot  believe 
in  a  pure  theism,  which  has  no  place  for  a  supernatural 
revelation. 

And  then,  again,  let  me  remind  you  how  here  is  the 
one  foothold,  if  I  may  so  say,  for  confidence.  If  God 
hath  not  spoken  there  is  nothing  to  reckon  upon. 
There  are  perhapses,  probabilities  if  you  like,  possi- 
bilities, but  nothing  beyond,  and  no  man  can  build 
a  faith  on  a  peradventure.  There  must  be  solid 
ground  on  which  to  rest;  and  here  is  solid  ground: 
•I  make  a  covenant  with  you.*  'God  is  not  a  man 
that  He  should  lie,  nor  the  Son  of  Man  that  He 
should  repent.'  And  armed  with  that  great  thought 
that  He  has  verily  rent  the  darkness  and  spoken 
words  which  commit  Him  and  assure  us,  we,  even  the 
weakest  of  us,  may  venture  to  go  to  Him,  and  plead 
with  Him    that  He  cannot  and    dare  not  alter  the 


V.24]  MESSENGER  OF  THE  COVENANT  263 

thing  that  has  gone  forth  out  of  His  mouth ;  and  so, 
in  deepest  reverence,  can  approach  Him  and  plead 
the  necessity  of  a  great  Must  under  which  He  has 
placed  Himself  by  His  own  word.  God  is  faithful,  the 
covenant-making  and  the  covenant-keeping  God. 

II.  Secondly,  mark  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Executor 
of  this  covenant. 

Moses,  of  course,  was  a  go-between,  in  a  mere 
external  sense ;  from  the  mountain  to  the  plain  and 
from  the  plain  to  the  mountain,  he  passed,  and  in 
either  case  simply  carried  a  message  bearing  God's 
will  to  man  or  man's  submission  to  God.  But  we 
have  to  dig  far  deeper  into  the  idea  than  that  of  a 
mere  outward  messenger  who  carries  what  is  entrusted 
to  him,  as  an  errand  boy  might,  if  we  are  to  get  the 
notion  of  Christ's  relation  to  these  great  promises, 
which,  massed  together,  are  God's  covenant  with  us. 
Observe  that  the  emphasis  is  here  laid  on  the  manhood 
of  the  Lord.  It  is  Jesus  who  is  the  'Mediator  of  the 
covenant ' :  and  observe,  too,  that  that  idea  passes 
into  the  wider  notion  of  His  place  as  the  link  uniting 
God  and  man.  The  depth  of  the  thought  is  only 
reached  when  we  recognise  His  divinity  and  His 
humanity.  He  is  the  ladder  with  its  foot  on  earth 
and  its  top  in  heaven. 

Because  God  dwells  in  Him,  and  the  word  became 
flesh,  He  is  able  to  lay  His  hand  upon  both,  and  to 
bring  God  to  man  and  man  to  God. 

He  brings  God  to  man.  If  what  I  have  been  saying 
is  at  all  true,  that  for  all  solid  faith  we  must  have  an 
articulate  declaration  of  the  divine  mind  and  heart, 
it  seems  to  me  to  be  equally  irrefragable  that  for  any 
such  declaration  of  the  divine  heart  and  mind  we 
must  have  a  human  vehicle.      God  speaks    through 


264  HEBREWS  [cii.  xii. 

men.  It  is  His  highest  way  of  making  Himself  known 
to  men.  And  Jesus  Christ  in  Ilis  Manliood  declares 
God  to  us.  Not  by  the  mere  words  which  He  speaks, 
as  a  teacher  and  a  wise  man,  a  religious  genius  and 
a  saint,  a  philosopher  and  a  poet,  a  moralist  and  a 
judge;  but  by  these,  and  also  by  His  life,  by  His 
emotions  of  pity  and  gentleness  and  patience,  and  by 
everything  that  He  does  and  everything  that  He 
endures,  He  speaks  to  us  of  God. 

Brethren,  where  shall  a  poor  man  rest  his  soul 
outside  of  the  direct  or  indirect  influences  of  the 
revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ?  Why!  the  very 
men  who  reject  Him  to-day,  on  the  plea  that  they 
have  learnt  a  nobler  conception  of  God  than  they  can 
find  in  Christianity,  owe  their  conception  of  Him  to 
the  gospel  which  they  reject.  Where  else  is  there 
certitude  solid  enough  to  resist  the  pressure  of  sorrow 
and  of  sin ;  confidence  enough  to  maintain  faith  in 
the  face  of  difficulty  and  conscious  evil  and  death ;  or 
energy  enough  in  a  creed  to  make  religion  an  all- 
controlling  influence  and  an  all-gladdening  stay  except 
in  Jesus  Christ?  I  venture  to  say,  nowhere !  Nowhere 
beyond  the  limits  to  which  either  the  river  of  the 
water  of  life  has  manifestly  flowed ;  or  some  rills 
and  rivulets  from  it  have  crept  underground  to  give 
strange  verdure  to  some  far-off  pasture;  nowhere 
else  is  there  found  the  confidence  in  the  Father's 
heart  which  is  the  property  of  the  Christian  man,  and 
the  result  of  the  Christian  covenant.  Jesus  Christ 
brings  God  to  man  by  the  declaration  of  His  nature 
incarnate  in  humanity. 

And,  on  the  other  hand.  He  brings  man  to  God: 
for  He  stands  to  each  of  us  as  our  true  Brother,  and 
united  to  us  by  such  close  and  real  bonds  as  that  aU 


V.24]  MESSENGER  OF  THE  COVENANT  265 

which  He  has  been  and  done  may  be  ours  if  we  join 
ourselves  to  Ilim  by  faith.  And  He  brings  men  to 
God,  because  in  Him  only  do  we  find  the  drawings 
that  incline  wayward  and  wandering  hearts  to  the 
Father.  And  He  seals  for  us  that  great  Covenant  in 
His  own  person  and  work,  in  so  far  as  what  He  in 
manhood  has  done  has  made  it  possible  that  such 
promises  should  be  given  to  us.  And,  still  further, 
He  is  the  Mediator  of  the  covenant,  in  so  far  as  He 
Himself  possesses  in  His  humanity  all  the  blessings 
which  manhood  is  capable  of  deriving  from  the 
Father,  and  He  has  them  all  in  order  that  He  may 
give  them  all.  There  is  the  great  reservoir  from 
which  all  men  may  fill  their  tiny  cvips. 

Men  tell  us  that  they  want  no  Mediator  between 
them  and  God.  Ah,  my  brother!  go  down  into  your 
own  hearts  ;  try  to  understand  what  sin  is ;  and  then 
go  up  as  near  as  you  can  to  the  dazzling  white  light, 
and  try  partially  to  conceive  of  what  God's  holiness  is, 
and  tell  us,  Do  you  think  you,  as  you  are,  could  walk 
in  that  light  and  not  be  consumed  ?  It  seems  to  me 
that  no  man  who  has  any  deep  knowledge  of  his  own 
heart,  and  any,  though  it  be  inadequate,  yet  true, 
conception  of  the  divine  nature,  dare  take  upon  his 
lips  that  boast  that  we  often  hear,  '  We  need  none  to 
come  between  us  and  God.' 

For  me,  I  thankfully  hear  Him  say,  '  No  man  cometh 
to  the  Father  but  by  Me  ' ;  and  pray  for  grace  to  tread 
in  that  only  way  that  leadeth  unto  God. 

III.  Note  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  which  seals 
the  covenant. 

There  is  an  allusion  there,  as  I  have  already  sug- 
gested, to  the  ceremonial  at  Sinai,  when,  in  token 
of  their  entrance  into  the  covenant,  the  blood  of  the 


266  HEBREWS  [en.  xii. 

sacrifice  was  sprinkled  upon  the  crowd ;  and  also  an 
allusion  to  the  voice  of  the  blood  of  the  innocent 
Abel,  which  '  cried  to  God  from  the  ground.'  The 
writer  has  already  referred  to  that  in  the  earlier  part 
of  the  letter;  and  here  he  weaves  the  two  together 
because,  with  whatever  differences  of  representation, 
the  substantial  meaning  of  both  images  is  the  same. 
The  blood  shed  establishes  the  covenant;  and  the 
blood  sprinkled  brings  us  into  it. 

If  Jesus  had  not  died,  there  would  have  been  no  pro- 
mises for  us,  beginning  in  forgiveness  and  ending  in 
wills  delighting  in  God's  law.  It  is  •  the  new  covenant 
in  His  blood.'  The  death  of  Christ  is  ever  present  to 
the  divine  mind  and  determines  the  divine  action. 

Hence  the  allusion  to  the  voice,  in  contrast  both  to 
the  dread  voice  that  echoed  among  the  grim  peaks 
of  Sinai,  and  to  that  which,  as  if  each  drop  had  a 
tongue,  called  from  Abel's  innocent  blood  for  retribu- 
tion. Christ's,  too,  has  a  voice,  and  that  an  all-power- 
ful one.  It  cries  for  pardon  with  the  same  authority 
of  intercession  as  we  hear  in  His  wondrous  high- 
priestly  prayer :  '  Father,  I  will.' 

Further,  that  sprinkling,  which  introduced  techni- 
cally and  formally  these  people  into  that  covenant, 
represents  for  us  the  personal  application  to  ourselves 
of  the  power  of  His  death  and  of  His  life  by  which 
we  may  make  all  God's  promises  our  own,  and  be 
cleansed  from  all  sin.  It  is  '  sprinkled.'  Then  it  is 
capable  of  division  into  indefinitely  small  portions, 
and  of  the  closest  contact  with  individuals.  That  is 
but  a  highly  metaphorical  way  of  saying  that  Jesus 
Christ  has  died  for  each  of  us,  that  each  of  us  may 
find  acceptance  and  cleansing,  and  the  inheritance  of 
all  the  promises,  if  we  put  our  trust  in  Him. 


▼.  24]  MESSENGER  OF  THE  COVENANT  267 

For  remember,  these  words  of  my  text  are  the  end  of 
a  great  sentence,  which  begins,  '  Ye  are  come.* 

Faith  is  that  coming.  What  did  Christ  say?  'He 
that  Cometh  unto  Me  shall  never  hunger.  He  that  be- 
lieveth  on  Me  shall  never  thirst.'  There  is  His  own 
interpretation  of  the  metaphor.  Whosoever  trusts 
Him,  comes  to  Him.  If  I  put  my  tremulous  faith  on 
that  dear  Lord,  though  Ho  be  on  the  throne  of  the 
universe,  and  I  down  here,  in  this  far-away  dim  corner 
of  His  creation,  I  am  with  Him  where  He  is,  and  no 
film  of  distance  need  separate  us.  If  we  trust  Him 
we  come  to  Him.  If  we  rest  upon  Him  as  our  advo- 
cate and  hope,  then  the  loud  voice  of  our  sins  will  not 
be  heard,  accusing-tongued  though  they  be,  above  the 
voice  of  His  pleading  blood. 

And  they  who  come  to  Christ,  therein  and  thereby, 
come  to  all  other  glorious  and  precious  persons  and 
things  in  the  universe.  For,  as  I  have  already  said, 
my  text  is  the  end  of  a  long  sentence,  and  is  last 
named  as  being  the  foundation  of  all  that  precedes, 
and  the  condition  of  our  finding  ourselves  in  touch 
with  all  the  other  glories  of  which  the  writer  has  been 
speaking.  He  that  comes  to  Christ  is  in  the  city. 
He  that  comes  to  Christ  is — not  uill  be — in  the  palace. 
He  that  comes  to  Christ  is  in  the  presence  of  the 
Judge.  He  that  comes  to  Christ  touches  angels  and 
perfected  spirits,  and  is  knit  to  all  that  are  knit  to  the 
same  Lord.  He  that  comes  to  Christ  comes  to  cleansing, 
and  enters  into  the  fulness  of  the  promise,  and  lives  in 
the  presence  and  companionship  of  his  present-absent 
Lord.  If  we  come  to  Jesus  by  faith,  Jesus  will  come  at 
last  to  us  to  receive  us  to  Himself;  and  join  us  to  the 
choirs  of  the  perfected  spirits  who  'have  washed  their 
robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.' 


REFUSING  GOD'S  VOICE 

'See  that  ye  refuse  notllim  that  speakcth  :  for  if  they  escaped  not  who  refused 
Him  that  spake  on  earth,  much  more  shall  not  we  escape,  if  we  turn  away  from 
Him  that  speaketh  from  heaven.'— Heb.  xii.  25. 

The  writer  has  finished  his  great  contrast  of  Judaism 
and  Christianity  as  typified  by  the  mounts  Sinai  and 
Zion.  But  the  scene  at  the  former  still  haunts  his 
imagination  and  shapes  this  solemn  warning.  The 
multitude  gathered  there  had  shrunk  from  the  divine 
voice,  and  'entreated  that  it  might  not  be  spoken  to 
them  any  more.'  So  may  we  do,  standing  before  the 
better  mount  of  a  better  revelation.  The  parallel 
between  the  two  congregations  at  the  two  mountains 
is  still  more  obvious  if  we  remark  that  the  word  trans- 
lated in  my  text  '  refuse  '  is  the  same  as  has  just  been 
employed  in  a  previous  verse,  describing  the  conduct 
of  the  Israelites,  where  it  is  rendered  '  entreated.'  It 
may  seem  strange  that  after  so  joyous  and  triumphant 
an  enumeration  of  the  glorious  persons  and  things 
with  whom  we  are  brought  into  contact  by  faith, 
there  should  come  the  jarring  note  of  solemn  warning 
which  seems  to  bring  back  the  terrors  of  the  ancient 
law.  But,  alas !  the  glories  and  blessedness  into  which 
faith  introduces  us  are  no  guarantees  against  its  decay; 
and  they  who  are  'come  unto  Mount  Zion  and  the 
city  of  the  living  God,'  may  turn  their  backs  upon  all 
the  splendour,  and  wander  away  into  the  gaunt  desert. 

I.  So  we  have  here,  first  of  all,  the  solemn  possibility 
of  refusal. 

Now,  to  gain  the  whole  force  and  solemnity  of  this 
exhortation,  it  is  very  needful  to  remember  that  it  is 
addressed  to  professing  Christians,  who  have  in  so  fai 
exercised  real  faith,  as  that  by  it  'they  are  come  tc 


V.  25]  REFUSING  GOD'S  VOICE  269 

Mount  Zion,  and  to  the  city  of  the  living  God.'  We 
are  to  keep  that  clear,  or  we  lose  the  whole  force 
and  meaning  of  this  exhortation  before  us,  which  is 
addressed  distinctly,  emphatically,  and,  in  its  true 
application,  exclusively  to  Christian  men — '  See  that 
ye  refuse  not  Ilim  that  speaketh.' 

Then,  again,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  refusal  here 
spoken  about,  and  against  which  we  professing 
Christians  are  thus  solemnly  warned,  is  not  necessarily 
entire  intellectual  rejection  of  tlie  gospel  and  its 
message.  For  the  Israelites,  who  made  the  original 
'  refusal,'  to  which  that  against  which  we  are  warned 
is  paralleled,  recognised  the  voice  that  thej''  would  not 
listen  to  as  being  God's  voice  ;  and  just  because  it  was 
His  voice,  wanted  to  hear  no  more  of  it.  And  so, 
although  we  may  permissibly  extend  the  words  before 
us  to  include  more  than  is  thereby  originally  meant, 
yet  we  must  remember  that  the  true  and  proper 
application  of  them  is  to  the  conduct  of  men  who, 
recognising  that  God  is  speaking  to  them,  do  not  want 
to  hear  anything  more  from  Him.  That  is  to  say, 
this  warning  brings  to  us  Christians  the  reminder  that 
it  is  possible  for  us  so  to  tamper  with  what  we  know 
to  be  the  uttered  will  and  expressed  commandment  of 
God,  as  that  our  conduct  is  tantamount  to  saying, 
'  Be  silent,  O  Lord  !  and  let  me  not  hear  Thee  speak 
any  more  to  me.'  The  reason  for  that  refusal,  which 
thus,  in  its  deepest  criminality  and  darkest  sin,  can 
only  be  made  by  men  that  recognise  the  voice  to  be 
God's,  lies  just  here,  'they  could  not  endure  that 
which  was  commanded.'  So,  then,  the  sum  of  the 
whole  thing  is  this,  that  it  is  possible  for  Christian 
people  so  to  cherish  wills  and  purposes  which  they 
know  to  be  in  diametrical  and  flagrant  contradiction 


270  HEBREWS  [en.  xii. 

to  the  will  and  purpose  of  God,  that  obstinately  they 
prefer  to  stick  by  their  own  desires,  and,  if  it  may  be, 
to  stifle  the  voice  of  God. 

Then  remember,  too,  that  this  refusal,  which  in 
reality  is  the  rising  up  of  the  creature's  will,  tastes, 
inclinations,  desires,  against  the  manifest  and  recognised 
will  of  God,  may,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  often  does, 
go  along  with  a  great  deal  of  lip  reverence  and 
unconsciously  hypocritical  worship.  These  men,  from 
whom  the  writer  is  drawing  his  warning  in  the 
wilderness  there,  said,  '  Do  not  let  Him  speak !  We 
are  willing  to  obey  all  that  He  has  to  command ;  only 
let  it  come  to  us  through  human  lips,  and  not  in 
these  tremendous  syllables  that  awe  our  spirits.' 
They  thought  themselves  to  be  perfectly  willing  to 
keep  the  commandments  when  they  were  given,  and 
all  that  they  wanted  was  some  little  accommodation 
to  human  weakness  in  the  selection  of  the  medium  by 
which  the  word  was  brought.  So  we  may  be 
wrenching  ourselves  away  from  the  voice  of  God, 
because  we  uncomfortably  feel  that  it  is  against  our 
resolves,  and  all  the  while  may  never  know  that  we 
are  unwilling  to  obey  His  commandments.  The 
unconscious  refusal  is  the  formidable  and  the  fatal 
one. 

It  comes  by  reason,  as  I  have  said,  fundamentally  of 
the  rising  up  of  our  own  determinations  and  wishes 
against  His  commandments;  but  it  is  also  due  to 
other  causes  operating  along  with  this.  How  can 
you  hear  God's  voice  if  you  are  letting  your  own 
yelping  dog-kennel  of  passions  speak  so  loudly  as 
they  do?  Will  God's  voice  be  heard  in  a  heart  that 
is  all  echoing  with  earthly  wishes,  loudly  clamant  for 
their  gratification,  or  with  sensual  desires  passionately 


V.25]  REFUSING  GOD'S  VOICE  271 

demanding  their  food  to  bo  flung  to  them?  Will 
God's  voice  be  heard  in  a  heart  where  the  janglings  of 
contending  wishes  and  earthly  inclinations  are  per- 
petually loud  in  their  brawling  ?  Will  it  be  heard  in 
a  heart  which  has  turned  itself  into  a  sounding-board 
for  all  the  noises  of  the  world  and  the  voices  of  men  ? 
The  voice  of  God  is  heard  in  silence,  and  not  amidst 
the  Babel  of  our  own  hearts.  And  they  who,  uncon- 
sciously, perhaps,  of  what  they  are  doing,  open  their 
ears  wide  to  hear  what  they  themselves  in  the  lower 
parts  of  their  souls  prescribe,  or  bow  themselves  in 
obedience  to  the  precepts  and  maxims  of  men  round 
them,  are  really  refusing  to  hear  the  voice  of  God. 

It  is  not  to  be  forgotten,  howsoever,  that  whilst 
thus  the  true  and  proper  application  of  these  words  is 
to  Christian  men,  and  the  way  by  which  we  refuse  to 
listen  to  that  awful  utterance  is  by  withdrawing  our 
lives  from  the  control  of  His  will,  and  dragging  away 
our  contemplations  from  meditation  upon  His  word, 
yet  there  is  a  further  form  in  which  men  may  refuse 
that  voice,  which  eminently  threatened  the  persons  to 
w^hom  this  warning  was  first  directed.  All  through 
this  letter  we  see  that  the  writer  is  in  fear  that  his 
correspondents  should  fall  away  into  intellectual  and 
complete  rejection  of  Christianity.  And  the  reason 
was  mainly  this,  that  the  fall  of  the  ancient  and 
sacred  system  of  the  old  covenant  might  lead  them  to 
distrust  all  revelation  from  God,  and  to  cast  aside  the 
gospel  message.  So  the  exhortation  of  my  text 
assumes  a  special  closeness  of  application  to  us  whose 
lot  has  been  cast  in  revolutionary  times,  as  was  theirs, 
and  who  have,  in  our  measure,  something  of  that 
same  experience  to  go  through  which  made  the  sharp 
trial  of  these  Hebrew  Christians.     To  them,  solid  and 


272  HEBREWS  [cH.xn. 

permanent  as  they  had  fancied  them,  ancient  and 
God-appointed  realities  and  ordinances  were  melting 
away ;  and  it  was  natural  that  they  should  ask  them- 
selves, *  Is  there  anything  that  will  not  melt,  on  which 
we  can  rest?'  And  to  us  in  this  day  much  of  the 
same  sort  of  discipline  is  appointed;  and  we,  too,  have 
to  see,  both  in  the  religious  and  in  the  social  world, 
much  evidently  waxing  old  and  ready  to  vanish  away 
which  our  fathers  thought  to  be  permanent.  And 
the  question  for  us  is,  Is  there  anything  that  we  can 
cling  to  ?  Yes  !  to  the  •  voice  that  speaks  from  heaven* 
in  Jesus  Christ.  As  long  as  that  is  sounding  in  our 
ears  we  can  calmly  look  out  on  the  evanescence  of  the 
evanescent,  and  confidently  rely  on  the  permanence 
of  the  permanent.  And  so,  brother,  though  this,  that, 
and  the  other  of  the  externals  of  Christianity,  in 
polity,  in  form,  in  mode,  may  be  passing  away,  be  sure 
of  this,  the  solid  core  abides;  and  that  core  lies  in  the 
first  word  of  this  letter.  '  God  .  .  .  hath  spoken  unto 
us  in  His  Son.'  See  that  no  experience  of  mutation 
leads  you  to  falter  in  your  confidence  in  that  voice, 
and  '  see  that  ye  refuse  not  Him  that  speaketh.' 

II.  Again,  note  the  sleepless  vigilance  necessary  to 
counteract  the  tendency  to  refusal. 

'  See  that  ye  refuse  not.'  A  warning  finger  is,  as  it 
were,  lifted.  Take  heed  against  the  tendencies  that 
lie  in  yourself  and  the  temptations  around  you.  The 
consciousness  of  the  possibility  of  the  danger  is  half 
the  battle.  '  Blessed  is  the  man  that  feareth  always,' 
says  the  psalm.  'The  confident' — by  which  is  meant 
the  presumptuous,  and  not  the  trustful — '  goeth  on 
and  is  punished.'  The  timid — by  which  I  mean  the 
self-distrustful — clings  to  God,  because  he  knows  his 
danger,  and  is  safe.    If  we  think  that  we  are  on  the 


V.25]  REFUSING  GOD'S  VOICE  273 

verge  of  falling,  we  are  nearer  standing  than  wo  ever 
are  besides.  To  lay  to  heart  the  reality  and  the 
imminence  and  the  gravity  of  the  possibility  that  is 
disclosed  here  is  an  essential  part  of  the  means  for 
preventing  its  becoming'  a  reality.  They  who  would 
say  '  I  cannot  turn  away  because  I  have  come,'  have 
yet  to  learn  the  weakness  of  their  own  hearts  and  the 
strength  of  the  world  that  draws  them  away.  There 
is  no  security  for  us  except  in  the  continual  temiDer  of 
rooted  self-distrust,  for  there  is  no  motive  that  will 
drive  us  to  the  continual  confidence  in  which  alone  is 
security  but  the  persistent  pressure  of  that  sense  that 
in  ourselves  we  are  nothing,  and  cannot  but  fall.  I 
want  no  man  to  live  in  that  selfish  and  anxious  dread 
'  which  hath  torment,'  but  I  am  sure  that  the  shortest 
road  to  the  bravo  security  which  is  certain  of  never 
being  defeated  is  the  clear  and  continual  consciousness 
that 

'  In  ourselves  we  nothing  can, 

Full  soon  were  we  down-ridden  ; 
But  for  us  fights  the  proper  Man, 

Whom  God  Himself  hath  bidden.' 

The  dark  underside  of  the  triumphant  confidence, 
which  on  its  sunny  side  looks  up  to  heaven  and 
receives  its  light,  is  that  self-distrust  which  says 
always  to  ourselves,  '  We  have  to  take  heed  lest  we 
refuse  Him  that  speaketh.' 

If  there  is  any  need  to  dwell  upon  specific  methods 
by  which  this  vigilance  and  continuous  self-distrust 
may  work  out  for  us  our  security,  one  would  say — by 
careful  trying  to  reverse  all  these  conditions  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  lead  us  surely  to  the  refusal.  Silence 
the  passions,  the  wishes,  the  voices  of  your  own  wills 
find  tastes  and  inclinations  and  purposes.     Bring  them 

3 


274  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

all  into  close  touch  with  Him.  Let  there  be  no  voice 
in  your  hearts  till  you  know  God's  will ;  and  then  with 
a  leap  let  your  hearts  be  eager  to  do  it.  Keep  your- 
selves out  of  the  babble  of  the  world's  voices ;  and  be 
accustomed  to  go  by  yourselves  and  let  God  speak. 
Nature  seems  to  be  silent  to  the  busy  traveller  who 
never  gets  away  from  the  thumping  of  the  piston  of 
the  engine  and  the  rattle  of  the  w4ieels  of  the  train. 
Let  him  go  and  sit  down  by  himself  on  the  mountain 
top,  and  the  silence  becomes  all  vocal  and  full  of 
noises.  Go  into  the  lone  place  of  silent  contemplation, 
and  so  get  near  God,  and  you  will  hear  His  voice. 
But  you  will  not  hear  it  unless  you  still  the  beating 
of  your  own  heart.  Even  in  such  busy  lives  as  most 
of  us  have  to  live  it  is  possible  to  secure  some  space 
for  such  solitary  communion  and  meditation  if  we 
seriously  feel  that  we  must,  and  are  ready  to  cut  off 
needless  distractions.  He  who  thus  has  the  habit  of 
going  alone  with  God  will  be  able  to  hear  His  voice 
piercing  through  the  importunate  noises  of  earth, 
which  drown  it  for  others.  Do  promptly,  precisely, 
perfectly,  all  that  you  know  He  has  said.  That  is  the 
way  to  sharpen  your  ears  for  the  more  delicate  intona- 
tions of  His  voice,  and  the  closer  manifestations  of  His 
will.  If  you  do  not,  the  voice  will  hush  itself  into 
silence.  Thus  bringing  your  lives  habitually  into 
contact  with  God's  word,  and  testing  them  all  by  it, 
you  will  not  be  in  danger  of  '  refusing  Him  that 
speaketh.' 

in.  Lastly,  note  the  solemn  motives  by  which  this 
sleepless  vigilance  is  enforced. 

'If  they  escaped  not  who  refused  Him  that  spake 
on  earth' — or,  perhaps,  'who  on  earth  refused  Him 
that    spake ' — '  much    more    shall    not    we    escape    if 


V.25]  REFUSING  GOD'S  VOICE  275 

we  turn  away  from  Him  that  speaketh  from  heaven.' 
The  clearness  of  the  voice  is  the  measure  of  the 
penalty  of  non-attention  to  it.  The  voice  that  spoke 
on  earth  had  earthly  penalties  as  the  consequence 
of  disobedience.  The  voice  that  speaks  from  heaven, 
by  reason  of  its  loftier  majesty,  and  of  the  clearer 
utterances  which  are  granted  to  us  thereby,  neces- 
sarily involves  more  severe  and  fatal  issues  from 
negligence  to  it. 

Mark  how  the  words  of  my  text  deepen  and  darken 
in  their  significance  in  the  latter  portion.  In  the  first 
we  had  simply  '  refusal,'  or  the  desire  not  to  hear  the 
voice,  and  in  the  latter  portion  that  has  solidified  and 
deepened  itself  into  'turning  away  from  Him.'  That 
is  to  say,  when  we  once  begin,  as  many  professing 
Christians  have  begun,  to  be  intolerant  of  God's  voice 
meddling  with  their  lives,  we  are  upon  an  inclined 
plane,  which,  with  a  sharp  pitch  and  a  very  short 
descent,  carries  us  down  to  the  darker  condition  of 
'turning  away  from  Him.'  The  man  who  stops  his 
ears  will  very  soon  turn  his  back  and  be  in  flight, 
so  far  as  he  can,  from  the  voice.  Do  not  tamper  with 
God's  utterances.  If  you  do,  you  have  begun  a 
course  that  ends  in  alienation  from  Him. 

Then  mark,  again,  the  evils  which  fell  upon  these 
people  who  turned  away  from  Him  that  speaketh  on 
earth  were  their  long  wanderings  in  the  wilderness, 
and  their  exclusion  from  the  Land  of  Promise,  and 
final  deaths  in  the  desert,  where  their  bleaching  bones 
lay  white  in  the  sunshine.  And  if  you  and  I,  dear 
friends,  by  continuous  and  increasing  deafness  to  our 
Father's  voice,  have  turned  away  from  Him,  then  all 
that  assemblage  of  flashing  glories  and  majestic 
persons  and  of  reconciling  blood   to   which  we  come 


276  HEBREWS  [ch.  xii. 

by  faith,  will  melt  away,  *and  leave  not  a  wrack 
behind.'  We  shall  be  like  men  who,  in  a  dream,  have 
thought  themselves  in  a  king's  palace,  surrounded  by 
beauty  and  treasures,  and  awaken  with  a  start  and 
a  shiver  to  find  themselves  alone  in  the  desert.  It 
will  be  loss  enough  if  the  fair  city  which  hath 
foundations,  and  the  palace-home  of  the  king  on  the 
mountain,  and  the  joyful  assemblage  of  the  angels, 
and  the  Church  of  the  firstborn,  and  the  spirits  of  the 
just  made  perfect,  and  the  blood  of  sprinkling,  all  pass 
away  from  our  vision,  and  instead  of  them  there  is 
nothing  left  but  this  mean,  vulgar,  fleeting  world. 
They  will  pass  if  you  do  not  listen  to  God,  and  that  is 
why  so  many  of  you  have  so  little  conscious  contact 
with  the  unseen  and  glorious  realities  to  which  faith 
gives  access. 

But  then  there  are  dark  and  real  penalties  to  come 
in  another  life  which  the  writer  dimly  shows  to  us. 
It  is  no  part  of  my  business  to  enlarge  upon  these 
solemn  warnings.  An  inspired  man  may  do  it.  I  do 
not  think  that  it  is  reverent  for  me  to  do  it  much. 
But  at  the  same  time,  let  me  remind  you  that  terror  is 
a  legitimate  weapon  to  which  to  appeal,  and  unwel- 
come and  unfashionable  as  its  use  is  nowadays,  it  is  one 
of  the  weapons  in  the  armoury  of  the  true  preacher  of 
God's  Word.  I  believe  we  Christian  ministers  would 
do  more  if  we  were  less  chary  of  speaking  out  'the 
terror  of  the  Lord,'  And  though  I  shrink  from 
anything  like  vulgar  and  rhetorical  and  sensational 
appeals  to  that  side  of  divine  revelation,  and  to 
what  answers  to  it  in  us,  I  consider  that  I  should  be  a 
traitor  to  the  truth  if  I  did  not  declare  the  fact  that 
such  appeals  are  legitimate,  and  that  such  terror  is  a 
part  of  the  divine  revelation. 


V.25]   GOD  S  VOICE  AND  MAN'S  ECHO     277 

So,  dear  friends,  though  I  dare  not  dwell  upon 
these,  I  dare  not  burke  them.  I  remind  you — and  I 
do  no  more — of  the  tone  that  runs  through  all  this 
letter,  of  which  you  have  such  instances  as  these,  '  If 
the  word  spoken  by  angels  was  steadfast,  and  every 
transgression  received  its  just  recompense  of  reward, 
how  shall  we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation  ? ' 
and  '  Of  how  much  sorer  punishment,  think  you,  shall 
they  be  thought  worthy  who  have  counted  the  blood 
of  the  Covenant  wherewith  they  were  sanctified  a 
common  thing?'  'See  that  ye  refuse  not  Him  that 
speaketh,'  for  the  clearer,  the  tenderer,  the  more 
stringent  the  beseechings  of  the  love  and  the  warnings 
of  Christ's  voice,  the  more  solemn  the  consequences 
if  we  stop  our  ears  to  it.  Better  to  hear  it  now, 
when  it  warns  and  pleads  and  beseeches  and  com- 
forts and  hallows  and  quickens,  than  to  hear  it  first 
when  it  rends  the  tombs  and  shakes  the  earth,  and 
summons  all  to  judgment,  and  condemns  some  to  the 
outer  darkness  to  which  they  had  first  condemned 
themselves. 


GOD'S  VOICE  AND  MAN'S  ECHO 

'  He  hath  said,  I  will  never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake  thee.  6.  So  that  we  may 
boldly  say.  The  Lord  is  my  helper,  and  I  will  not  fear  what  man  shall  do  unto 
me.'— Heb.  xiii.  5,  6. 

'  He  hath  said ' ;  '  we  may  .  .  .  say.'  So,  then,  here  are 
two  voices ;  or,  rather,  a  voice  and  an  echo — God's 
voice  of  promises,  and  man's  answering  voice  of  con- 
fidence. God  speaks  to  us  that  we  may  speak  to  Him ; 
and  when  He  speaks  His  promises,  the  only  fitting 
answer  is  to  acceot  them  as  true  in  all  their  fulness 


278  HEBREWS  [en.  xiii. 

and  individual  application,  and  to  build  on  them  a 
fixed  confidence. 

The  writer  quotes  two  passages  as  from  the  Old 
Testament.  The  first  of  them  is  not  found  verbatim 
anywhere  there ;  the  nearest  approach  to  it,  and 
obviously  the  source  of  the  quotation,  occurs  in  a 
connection  that  is  worth  noting.  When  Moses  was 
handing  over  the  charge  of  his  people  to  his  successor, 
Joshua,  he  said  first  to  the  people  and  then  to  Joshua, 
'  Be  strong  and  of  good  courage.  .  .  .  He  will  not  fail 
thee,  neither  forsake  thee.'  The  writer  of  the  Epistle 
falls  back  upon  these  words  with  a  slight  alteration, 
and  turns  '  He '  into  '  I,'  simply  because  he  recognised 
that  when  Moses  spoke,  God  was  speaking  through 
him,  and  countersigning  with  His  own  seal  the 
promise  which  His  servant  made  in  His  name.  The 
other  passage  comes  from  the  118th  Psalm.  So,  then, 
let  us  listen  to  the  divine  voice  and  the  human 
answer. 

I.  God's  voice  of  promise. 

'He  hath  said,  I  will  never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake 
thee.'  Now,  notice  that  there  is  a  distinct  parallel  be- 
tween the  position  of  the  people  to  whom  this  Epistle 
was  addressed,  and  that  of  the  Hebrews  to  whom  the 
original  promise  was  made.  The  latter  were  standing 
on  the  verge  of  a  great  change.  They  were  passing 
from  under  the  leadership  of  Moses,  and  going  under 
the  leadership  of  the  untried  Joshua.  Is  it  fanciful  to 
recall  that  Joshua  and  Jesus  are  the  same  name ;  and 
that  the  difficulty  which  Israel  on  the  borders  of 
Canaan  had  to  face,  and  the  difficulty  which  these 
Hebrew  Christians  had  to  encounter,  were  similar, 
being  in  each  case  a  change  of  leaders — the  ceasing  to 
look  to  Moses  and   the  beginning  to  take  commands 


vs.6,6]  GOD'S  VOICE  AND  MAN'S  ECHO   279 

from  another?  To  men  in  such  a  crisis,  when  vener- 
able authority  was  becoming  antiquated,  it  mi^'ht 
seem  as  if  nothing  was  stable.  Very  appropriate, 
therefore,  and  strong  was  the  encouragement  given 
by  pointing  away  from  the  flowing  river  to  the  Rock 
of  Ages,  rising  changeless  above  the  changing  current 
of  human  life.  So  Moses  said  to  his  generation,  and 
the  author  of  the  Epistle  says  after  him  to  his  contem- 
poraries— you  may  change  the  leaders,  but  you  keep 
the  one  Presence. 

This  letter  goes  on  the  principle  throughout  that 
everything  which  belonged  to  Israel,  in  the  way  of 
Institutions,  sacred  persons,  promises,  is  handed  over 
to  the  Christian  Church,  and  we  are,  as  it  were,  served 
heirs  to  the  whole  of  these.  So,  then,  to  every  one 
of  us  the  message  comes,  and  comes  in  its  most 
individual  aspect,  'I  will  never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake 
thee.'  Now,  '  to  leave '  and  '  to  forsake  '  are  identical, 
and  the  promise,  if  we  keep  to  the  Authorised  Version, 
is  a  repetition,  in  the  two  clauses,  of  the  same  thought. 
But  whilst  the  two  clauses  are  substantially  identical, 
there  is  a  very  beautiful  variation  in  the  form  in  which 
the  one  assurance  is  given  in  them.  With  regard  to 
the  first  of  them,  '  I  will  never  leave  thee,'  both  in  the 
Hebrew  and  in  the  Greek  the  word  which  is  employed, 
and  which  is  translated  '  leave,' means  the  withdrawing 
of  a  hand  that  sustains.  And  so  the  Revised  Version 
wisely  substitutes  for  '  leave  thee,'  '  I  will  never  fail 
thee.'  We  might  even  put  it  more  colloquially,  and 
approach  more  nearly  the  original  expression,  if  we 
said,  'He  will  never  drop  thee';  never  let  His  hand 
slacken,  never  withdraw  its  sustaining  power,  but  will 
communicate  for  ever,  day  by  day,  not  only  the 
strength,  but  the  conscious  security  that  comes  from 


280  HEBREWS  [CH.  xiii. 

feeling  that  great,  strong,  gentle  hand,  closing  thee 
round  and  keeping  thee  tight.  No  man  'shall  pluck 
them  out  of  My  father's  hand.'  *The  Lord  upholdeth 
all  that  fall,'  says  one  Psalm,  and  another  of  the  psalm- 
ists puts  it  even  more  picturesquely;  'When  I  said  my 
foot  slippeth,  Thy  merc^'^,  O  Lord,  held  me  up,'  To  say 
'mij  foot  slippeth,'  with  a  strong  emj)hasis  on  the  '  my,' 
is  the  sure  way  to  be  able  to  say  the  other  thing :  '  Thy 
mercy  held  me  up.'  '  Ho  shall  not  fall,  for  the  Lord  is 
able  to  make  him  stand.'  Suppose  a  man  on  some 
slippery  glacier,  not  accustomed  to  ice-work,  as  he 
feels  his  foot  going  out  from  under  him,  he  gets 
nervous,  and  nervousness  means  a  fall,  and  a  fall 
means  disaster  and  sometimes  death.  So  he  grips 
the  guide's  hand,  and  then  he  can  walk.  There  is 
Peter,  out  on  the  sea  that  he  had  presumptuously  asked 
leave  to  walk  on,  and  as  he  feels  the  cold  water  coming 
above  his  ankle,  and  sees  it  rising  higher  and  higher, 
he  begins  to  fear,  and  his  fear  makes  him  heavier,  so 
that  he  sinks  the  faster,  till  the  very  extremity  of 
need  and  paroxysm  of  terror  strike  out  a  spark  of 
faith,  and  faith  and  fear  are  strangely  blended  in  the 
cry:  'Lord,  save  me.'  Christ's  outstretched  hand 
answered  the  cry,  and  its  touch  held  Peter  up,  made 
him  buoyant  again,  and  as  he  rose,  the  water  seemed 
to  sink  beneath  his  feet,  and  on  that  heaving  pave- 
ment, glistening  in  the  moonlight,  he  walked  till  he 
was  helped  into  the  boat  again.  So  will  God  do  for 
us,  if  we  will,  for  He  has  said :  '  I  will  never  relax  My 
grasp.  Nothing  shall  ever  come  between  My  hand 
and  thine.'  When  a  nurse  or  a  mother  is  holding  a 
child's  hand,  her  grip  slackens  unless  it  is  perpetually 
repeated  by  fresh  nervous  tension.  So  all  human 
helps  tend  to  become  less  helpful,  and  all  human  love 


vs.  5, 6]  GOD'S  VOICE  AND  MAN'S  ECHO    281 

has  its  limits.  But  God's  hand  never  slackens  its 
grip,  and  we  may  be  sure  that,  as  He  has  grasped  He 
will  hold,  and  'keep  that  which  we  have  committed 
unto  Him.' 

But  mark  the  other  form  of  the  promise.  'I  will 
never  drop  thee' — that  promises  the  communication 
of  sustaining  strength  according  to  our  need:  'nor 
forsake  thee' — that  is  the  same  promise,  in  another 
shape.  The  tottering  limbs  need  to  be  held  up.  The 
lonely  heart  walking  the  way  of  life,  lonely  after  all 
companionship,  and  which  has  depths  that  the  purest 
human  love  cannot  sound,  and  sometimes  dark  secrets 
that  it  durst  not  admit  the  dearest  to  behold — that 
heart  may  have  a  divine  companion.  Here  is  a  word 
for  the  solitary,  and  we  are  all  solitary.  Some  of  us, 
more  plainly  than  others,  are  called  upon  to  walk 
a  lonely  road  in  a  great  darkness,  and  to  live  lives 
little  apprehended,  little  sympathised  with,  by  others, 
or  perchance  having  for  our  best  companion,  next  to 
God,  the  memories  of  those  who  are  beside  us  no  more. 
Moses  died,  Joshua  took  his  place;  but  behind  the 
dying  Moses — buried  in  his  unknown  grave,  and  left 
far  away  as  the  files  crossed  the  Jordan — and  behind 
the  living  Joshua,  there  was  the  Lord  who  liveth  for 
ever.  'I  will  not  forsake  thee.'  Dear  ones  go,  and 
take  half  our  hearts  with  them.  People  misunderstand 
us.  We  feel  that  we  dare  not  open  out  our  whole 
selves  to  any.  We  feel  that,  just  as  scientists  tell  us 
that  no  two  atoms  of  the  most  solid  body  are  in  actual 
juxtaposition,  but  that  there  is  a  film  of  air  between 
them,  and  hence  all  bodies  are  more  or  less  elastic,  if 
Bufiicient  pressure  be  applied,  so  after  the  closest  com- 
panionship there  is  a  film.  But  that  film  makes  no 
separation  between  us  and  God.    •  I  will  not  drop  thee ' 


282  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

— there  is  the  strength  according  to  our  need.  *!  will 
not  forsake  thee,'  there  is  companionship  in  all  our 
solitude. 

But  do  not  let  us  forget  that  all  God's  promises  have 
conditions  appended,  and  that  this  one  has  its  condi- 
tions like  all  the  rest.  Was  not  the  history  of  Israel 
a  contradiction  of  that  glowing  promise  which  was 
given  them  before  they  crossed  the  Jordan?  Docs  the 
Jew  to-day  look  as  if  he  belonged  to  a  nation  that  God 
would  never  leave  nor  forsake  ?  Certainly  not.  And 
why?  Simply  because  God's  promise  of  not  dropping 
us,  and  of  never  leaving  us,  is  contingent  upon  our  not 
dropping  Him,  and  of  our  never  leaving  Him.  'No 
man  shall  pluck  them  out  of  My  Father's  hand.'  No; 
but  they  can  wriggle  themselves  out  of  their  Father's 
hand.  They  can  break  the  communion ;  they  can 
separate  themselves,  and  bring  a  film,  not  of  impalp- 
able and  pure  atmosphere,  but  of  i3oisonous  gases, 
between  themselves  and  God.  And  God  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  grand  old  legend,  before  the  Roman  soldier 
flung  his  torch  into  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  '  burnt  up 
the  beautiful  house  where  our  fathers  praised  Ilira 
with  fire,'  was  heard  saying,  '  Let  us  depart  hence,'  does 
say  sometimes,  when  a  man  has  gone  away  from  Him, 
'  I  will  go  and  return  to  My  place  until  they  seek  Me. 
In  their  affliction,  they  will  seek  Me  early.' 

And  now  let  me  say  a  word  about  the  second  voice 
that  sounds  here. 

II.  The  human  answer,  or  the  echo  of  the  divine 
voice. 

If  God  speaks  to  me,  He  waits  for  me  to  speak  to 
Him.  My  answer  should  be  immediate,  and  my  answer 
should  embrace  as  true  all  that  He  has  said  to  me, 
and  my  answer  should  build  upon  His  great  faithful 


vs.  5,  6]  GOD  S  VOICE  AND  MAN'S  ECHO    283 

promise  a  great  triumphant  confidence.  Do  we  speak 
to  God  in  the  strain  in  which  He  speaks  to  us?  When 
He  says,  'I  will,'  do  our  hearts  leap  up  with  joyful 
confidence,  and  answer,  'Thou  dost'?  Do  we  take  all 
His  promises  for  our  trust,  or  do  we  meet  His  firm 
assurance  with  a  feeble,  faltering  faith?  We  turn 
God's  'verily'  into  a  peradventure,  often,  and  at  best 
when  He  says  to  us  '  I  will,'  we  doubtingly  say  'perhaps 
He  may.'  That  is  the  kind  of  faith,  even  at  its  highest, 
with  which  the  best  of  us  meet  this  great  promise, 
building  frail  tabernacles  on  the  Rock  of  Ages  and 
putting  shame  on  God's  faithfulness  by  our  faithless- 
ness. '  He  hath  said,'  and  then  He  pauses  and  listens, 
whether  we  are  going  to  say  anything  in  answer,  and 
whether  when  He  promises :  '  I  will  never  leave  thee, 
nor  forsake  thee,'  we  are  bold  to  say,  'The  Lord  is 
my  helper,  I  will  not  fear  what  man  can  do  unto  me.' 

Now,  I  do  not  suppose  that  I  am  keeping  too 
slavishly  to  the  mere  words  of  the  text  if  I  ask  you  to 
look  at  the  beautiful  sequence  of  thought  in  these 
three  clauses  which  make  the  response  of  the  man  to 
the  divine  promise.  There  is  a  kind  of  throb  of 
wonder  in  that  word.  'The  Lord  is  my  helper.' 
That  is  the  answer  of  faith  to  the  divine  promise, 
grasping  it,  never  hesitating  about  it,  laying  it  upon 
the  heart,  or  on  the  fevered  forehead  like  a  cooling 
leaf,  to  subdue  the  hot  pulsations  there.  And  then 
what  comes  next  ?  '  I  will  not  fear.'  We  have  the 
power  of  controlling  our  apprehension  of  peril,  but  it 
is  of  no  use  to  screw  ourselves  up  to  a  fictitious 
courage  which  consists  mainly  in  the  ostrich's  wisdom 
of  hiding  its  head  from  the  danger,  and  in  saying, 
*Who  is  afraid?'  Unless  we  can  say  'The  Lord  is  my 
helper,'  it  is  folly  to  say,  'I  will  not  be  afraid,  I  will 


284  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

brace  myself  up,  and  be  courageous  to  meet  these 
difficulties.'  That  is  all  right,  but  it  is  not  all  right, 
unless  we  have  laid  the  right  foundation  for  courage. 
Having  our  purged  ears  opened  to  hear  the  great, 
strong,  sweet  divine  promise,  wo  are  able  to  coerce 
our  terrors,  and  to  banish  them  from  our  minds  by  the 
assurance  that,  whatever  comes,  God  is  with  us.  '  The 
Lord  is  my  helper ' — that  is  the  foundation,  and  built 
upon  that — and  madness  unless  it  is  built  upon  it — is 
the  courage  which  says  to  all  my  fears,  '  Down,  down, 
you  are  not  to  get  the  mastery  over  me.'  '  I  will  trust,' 
says  the  Psalmist,  'and  not  be  afraid.'  Faith  is  the 
antagonist  to  fear,  because  faith  grasps  the  fact  of  the 
divine  promise. 

Now,  there  is  another  thought  which  may  come  in 
here  since  it  is  suggested  by  the  context,  and  that  is, 
that  the  recognition  of  God  thus,  as  always  with  us  to 
sustain  us,  makes  all  earthly  conditions  tolerable.  The 
whole  of  my  text  is  given  as  the  ground  of  the  exhorta- 
tion: 'Be  content  with  such  things  as  ye  have,'  for 
He  hath  said,  '  I  will  never  leave  thee.'  If  Thou  dost 
not  leave  me,  then  such  things  as  I  have  are  enough 
for  me,  and  if  Thou  hast  gone  away,  no  things  that  I 
merely  have  are  of  much  good  to  me. 

And  then  comes  the  last  stage  in  our  answer  to  what 
God  says,  which  is  bettor  represented  by  a  slight  varia- 
tion in  translation,  putting  the  last  words  of  my  text  as 
a  question :  '  What  can  man  do  unto  me  ? '  It  is  safe  to 
look  at  men  and  things,  and  their  possibly  calamitous 
action  upon  our  outward  lives,  when  we  have  done  the 
other  two  things,  grasped  God  and  rested  in  faith  on 
Him.  If  we  begin  with  what  ought  to  come  last,  and 
look  first  at  what  man  can  do  unto  us,  then  fear  will 
surge  over  us,  as  it  ought  to  do.    But  if  we  follow  the 


vs.  5,  6]     THE  UNCHANGING  CHRIST       285 

order  of  faith,  and  start  with  God's  promise,  grapple 
that  to  our  heart,  and  put  down  with  strong  hand 
the  craven  dread  that  coils  round  our  hearts,  then  we 
can  look  out  with  calm  eyes  upon  all  the  appearances 
that  may  threaten  evil,  and  say,  '  Come  on,  come  all, 
my  foot  is  on  the  Rock  of  Ages,  and  my  back  is  against 
it.  No  man  can  touch  me.'  So  we  may  boldly  say, 
'What  can  man  do  unto  me  ?' 


THE  UNCHANGING  CHRIST 

•Jesus  Christ  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever.' 

Heb.  xiii.  8. 

How  far  back  does  this  'yesterday'  go?  The  limit 
must  be  found  by  observing  that  it  is  '  Jesus  Christ ' 
who  is  spoken  of — that  is  to  say,  the  Incarnate  Saviour. 
That  observation  disposes  of  the  reference  of  these 
words  to  the  past  eternity  in  which  the  eternal  Word 
of  God  was  what  He  is  to-day.  The  sameness  that  is 
referred  to  here  is  neither  the  sameness  of  the  divine 
Son  from  all  eternity,  nor  the  sameness  of  the  medium 
of  revelation  in  both  the  old  and  the  new  dispensations, 
but  the  sameness  of  the  hu7Jian  Christ  to  all  genera- 
tions of  His  followers.  And  the  epoch  referred  to  in 
the  '  yesterday '  is  defined  more  closely  if  we  observe 
the  previous  context,  which  speaks  of  the  dying 
teachers  who  have  had  the  rule  and  have  passed  away. 
The  ' yesterday'  is  the  period  of  these  departed  teachers; 
the  'to-day'  is  the  period  of  the  writer  and  his 
readers. 

But  whilst  the  words  of  my  text  are  thus  narrowly 
limited,  the  attribute,  which  is  predicated  of  Christ  in 
them,  is  something  more  than  belongs  to  manhood, 


286  HEBREWS  [ch.  xm. 

and  requires  for  its  foundation  the  assumption  of  His 
deity.  He  is  the  unchanging  Jesus  because  He  is  the 
divine  Son.  The  text  resumes  at  the  end  of  the  Epistle, 
the  solemn  words  of  the  first  chapter,  which  referred 
the  declaration  of  the  Psalmist  to  '  the  Son ' — '  Thou 
art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall  not  fail.'  That  Son, 
changeless  and  eternal  by  divine  immutability,  is 
Jesus  Christ,  the  incarnate  Redeemer. 

This  text  may  well  be  taken  as  our  motto  in  looking 
forward,  as  I  suppose  we  are  all  of  us  more  or  less 
doing,  and  trying  to  forecast  the  dim  outlines  of  the 
coming  events  of  this  New  Year.  Whatever  may 
happen,  let  us  hold  fast  by  that  confidence,  *  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for 
ever.' 

I.  I  apply  these  words,  then,  as  a  New- Year's  motto, 
in  two  or  three  different  directions,  and  ask  you  to 
consider,  first,  the  unchanging  Christ  in  His  relation 
to  our  changeful  lives. 

The  one  thing  of  which  anticipation  may  be  sure  is 
that  nothing  continues  in  one  stay.  True,  '  that  which 
is  to  be  hath  already  been ' ;  true,  there  is  '  nothing  new 
under  the  sun';  but  just  as  in  the  physical  world  the 
infinite  variety  of  creatures  and  things  is  all  made  out 
of  a  few  very  simple  elements,  so,  in  our  lives,  out  of  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  possible  incidents,  an 
immense  variety  of  combinations  results,  with  the 
effect  that,  while  we  may  be  sure  of  the  broad  outlines 
of  our  future,  we  are  all  in  the  dark  as  to  its  particular 
events,  and  only  know  that  ceaseless  change  will 
characterise  it.  So  all  forward  looking  must  have  a 
touch  of  fear  in  it,  and  there  is  only  one  thing  that 
will  enable  us  to  front  the  else  intolerable  certainty  of 
uncertainty,  and  that  is,  to  fall  back  upon  this  thought 


V.  8]        THE  UNCHANGING  CHRIST        287 

of  my  text,  '  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  and 
to-day,  and  for  ever.' 

The  one  lesson  of  our  changeful  lives  ought  to  be  for 
each  of  us  the  existence  of  that  which  changes  not. 
By  the  very  law  of  contrast,  and  by  the  need  of  finding 
sufficient  reason  for  the  changes,  we  are  driven  from 
the  contemplation  of  the  fleeting  to  the  vision  of  the 
permanent.  The  waves  of  this  stormy  sea  of  life 
ought  to  fling  us  all  high  and  dry  on  the  safe  shore. 
Blessed  are  they  who,  in  a  world  of  passing  phenomena, 
penetrate  to  the  still  centre  of  rest,  and  looking  over 
all  the  vacillations  of  the  things  that  can  be  shaken, 
can  turn  to  the  Christ  and  say.  Thou  who  movest  all 
things  art  Thyself  unmoved ;  Thou  who  changest  all 
things,  Thyself  changest  not.  As  the  moon  rises  slow 
and  silvery,  with  its  broad  shield,  out  of  the  fluctua- 
tions of  the  ocean,  so  the  one  radiant  Figure  of  the  all- 
sufficient  and  immutable  Lover  and  Friend  of  our 
souls  should  rise  for  us  out  of  the  billows  of  life's  toss- 
ing ocean,  and  come  to  us  across  the  seas.  Brother ! 
let  the  fleeting  proclaim  to  you  the  permanent ;  let  the 
world  with  its  revolutions  lead  you  up  to  the  thought 
of  Him  who  is  the  same  for  ever.  For  that  is  the  only 
thought  on  which  a  man  can  build,  and,  building,  be  at 
rest. 

The  yesterday  of  my  text  may  either  be  applied  to 
the  generations  that  have  passed,  and  then  the 
•  to-day '  is  our  little  life ;  or  may  be  applied  to  my  own 
yesterday,  and  then  the  to-day  is  this  narrow  present. 
In  either  application  the  words  of  my  text  are  full  of 
hope  and  of  joy.  In  the  former  they  say  to  us  that  no 
time  can  waste,  nor  any  drawing  from  the  fountain 
can  diminish  the  all-sufficiency  of  that  divine  Christ 
in  whom  eighteen  centuries  have  trusted  and  been 


288  HEBREWS  [en.  xm. 

'lightened,  and  their  faces  were  not  ashamed.'  The 
yesterday  of  His  grace  to  past  generations  is  the 
prophecy  of  the  future  and  the  law  for  the  present. 
There  is  nothing  that  any  past  epoch  has  ever  drawn 
from  Him,  of  courage  and  confulonce,  of  hope  and 
wisdom,  of  guidance  and  strength,  of  love  and  consola- 
tion, of  righteousness  and  purity,  of  brave  hope  and 
patient  endurance,  which  He  does  not  stand  by  my 
side  ready  to  give  to  mo  too  to-day,  '  As  we  have 
heard,  so  have  we  seen  in  the  city  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,' 
and  the  old  Christ  of  a  thousand  years  ago  is  the 
Christ  of  to-day,  ready  to  help,  to  succour,  and  to 
make  us  like  Himself. 

In  the  second  reference,  narrowing  the  'yesterdays' 
to  our  own  experiences,  the  words  are  full  of  consola- 
tion and  of  hope.  '  Thou  hast  been  my  Help  ;  leave  me 
not,  neither  forsake  me,'  is  the  prayer  that  ought  to  be 
taught  us  by  every  remembrance  of  what  Jesus  Christ 
has  been  to  us.  The  high- water  mark  of  His  possible 
sweetness  does  not  lie  in  some  irrevocable  past  moment 
of  our  lives.  We  never  have  to  say  that  we  have 
found  a  sufficiency  in  Him  which  we  never  shall  find 
any  more.  Remember  the  time  in  your  experience 
when  Jesus  Christ  was  most  tender,  most  near,  most 
sweet,  most  mysterious,  most  soul-sufficing  for  you, 
and  be  sure  that  He  stands  beside  you,  ready  to  renew 
the  ancient  blessing  and  to  surpass  it  in  His  gift. 
Man's  love  sometimes  wearies,  Christ's  never ;  man's 
basket  may  be  emptied,  Christ's  is  fuller  after  the 
distribution  than  it  was  before.  This  fountain  can 
never  run  dry.  Not  until  seven  times,  but  until 
seventy  times  seven — perfection  multiplied  into  per- 
fection, and  that  again  multiplied  by  perfection  once 
more — is  the  limit  of  the  inexhaustible  mercy  of  our 


V.  8]        THE  UNCHANGING  CHRIST        289 

Lord,  and  all  in  which  the  past  has  been  rich  lives  in 
the  present. 

Remember,  too,  that  this  same  thought  which 
heartens  us  to  front  the  inevitable  changes,  also  gives 
dignity,  beauty,  poetry,  to  the  small  prosaic  present. 
'  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  to-day.'  We  are  always 
tempted  to  think  that  this  moment  is  commonplace 
and  insignificant.  Yesterday  lies  consecrated  in 
memory ;  to-morrow,  radiant  in  hope ;  but  to-day  is 
poverty-stricken  and  prose.  The  sky  is  farthest  away 
from  us  right  over  our  heads ;  behind  and  in  front  i> 
seems  to  touch  the  earth.  But  if  we  will  only  realist 
that  all  that  sparkling  lustre  and  all  that  more  thai* 
mortal  tenderness  of  pity  and  of  love  with  which  Jesus 
Christ  has  irradiated  and  sweetened  any  past  ia 
verily  here  with  us  amidst  the  commonplaces  and 
insignificant  duties  of  the  dusty  to-day,  then  we  need 
look  back  to  no  purple  distance,  nor  forward  to  any 
horizon  where  sky  and  earth  kiss,  but  f*^el  that  here  or 
nowhere,  now  or  never,  is  Christ  the  all-sufficient  and 
unchanging  Friend.  He  is  faithful.  He  cannot  deny 
Himself. 

II.  So,  secondly,  I  apply  these  words  in  another 
direction.  I  ask  you  to  think  of  the  relation 
between  the  unchanging  Christ  and  the  dying 
helpers. 

That  is  the  connection  in  which  the  words  occur  in 
my  text.  The  writer  has  been  speaking  of  the  sub- 
ordinate and  delegated  leaders  and  rulers  in  the 
Church  '  who  have  spoken  the  word  of  God '  and  who 
have  passed  away,  leaving  a  faith  to  be  followed,  and 
a  conversation  the  end  of  which  is  to  be  considered. 
And,  turning  from  all  these  mortal  companions,  helpers, 
guides,  he  bids  us  think  of  Him  who  liveth  for  ever, 

T 


290  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

and  for  ever  is  the  teacher,  the  companion,  the  home  of 
our  hearts,  and  the  goal  of  our  love.  All  other  ties — 
sweet,  tender,  infinitely  precious,  have  been  or  will  bo 
broken  for  you  and  me.  Some  of  us  have  to  look  back 
upon  their  snapping;  some  of  us  have  to  look  forward. 
But  there  is  one  bond  over  which  the  skeleton  fingers  of 
Death  have  no  power,  and  they  fumble  at  that  knot 
in  vain.  He  separates  us  from  all  others ;  blessed  be 
God !  he  cannot  separate  us  from  Christ.  '  I  shall  not 
lose  Thee  though  I  die  ' ;  and  Thou,  Thou  diest  never. 

God's  changeful  providence  comes  into  all  our  lives, 
and  parts  dear  ones,  making  their  places  empty,  that 
Christ  Himself  may  fill  the  empty  places,  and,  striking 
away  other  props,  though  the  tendrils  that  twine 
round  them  bleed  with  the  wrench,  in  order  that  the 
plant  may  no  longer  trail  along  the  ground,  but 
twine  itself  round  the  Cross  and  climb  to  the  Christ 
upon  the  throne.  *  In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died, 
I  saw  the  Lord  sitting  on  a  throne.'  The  true  King 
was  manifested  when  the  earthly,  shadowy  monarch 
was  swept  away.  And  just  as,  on  the  face  of  some 
great  wooded  cliff,  when  the  leaves  drop,  the  solemn 
strength  of  the  everlasting  rock  gleams  out  pure,  so 
when  our  dear  ones  fall  away,  Jesus  Christ  is  revealed, 
'  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever.'  *  They 
truly  were  many,  because  they  were  not  suffered  to 
continue  by  reason  of  death.'  'This  Man  continueth 
ever.'  He  lives,  and  in  Him  all  loves  and  companion- 
ships live  unchanged. 

III.  So,  further,  we  apply,  in  the  third  place,  this 
thought  to  the  relation  between  the  unchanging  Christ 
and  decaying  institutions  and  opinions. 

The  era  in  which  this  Epistle  was  written  was  an 
era   of    revolution   so    great    that    we    can    scarcely 


V.8]        THE  UNCHANGING  CHRIST        291 

imagine  its  apparent  magnitude.  It  was  close  upon 
the  final  destruction  of  the  ancient  system  of  Judaism 
as  an  external  institution.  The  temple  was  tottering 
to  its  fall,  the  nation  was  ready  to  bo  scattered,  and 
the  writer,  speaking  to  Hebrews,  to  whom  that  crash 
seemed  to  be  the  passing  away  of  the  eternal  verities 
of  God,  bids  them  lift  their  eyes  above  all  the  chaos 
and  dust  of  dissolving  institutions  and  behold  the  true 
Eternal,  the  ever-living  Christ.  He  warns  them  in  the 
verse  that  follows  my  text  not  to  be  carried  about 
with  divers  and  strange  doctrines,  but  to  keep  fast  to 
the  unchanging  Jesus.  And  so  these  words  may  well 
come  to  us  with  lessons  of  encouragement,  and  with 
teaching  of  duty  and  steadfastness,  in  an  epoch  of 
much  unrest  and  change — social,  theological,  ecclesi- 
astical— such  as  that  in  which  our  lot  is  cast.  Man's 
systems  are  the  shadows  on  the  hillside.  Christ  is 
the  everlasting  solemn  mountain  itself.  Much  in  the 
popular  conception  and  representation  of  Christianity 
is  in  the  act  of  passing.  Let  it  go ;  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever.  We  need 
not  fear  change  within  the  limits  of  His  Church  or  of 
His  world.  For  change  there  means  progress,  and 
the  more  the  human  creations  and  embodiments  of 
Christian  truth  crumble  and  disintegrate,  the  more 
distinctly  does  the  solemn,  single,  unique  figure  of 
Christ  the  Same,  rise  before  us.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  world's  history  to  compare  with  the  phenomenon 
which  is  presented  by  the  unworn  freshness  of  Jesus 
Christ  after  all  these  centuries.  All  other  men,  how- 
ever burning  and  shining  their  light,  flicker  and  die 
out  into  extinction,  and  but  for  a  season  can  the 
world  rejoice  in  any  of  their  beams ;  but  this  Jesus 
dominates  the  ages,  and  is  as  fresh  to-day,  in  spite  of 


292  HEBREWS  [ch.  xm. 

all  that  men  say,  as  He  was  eighteen  centuries  ago. 
They  tell  us  He  is  losing  His  power ;  they  tell  us  that 
mists  of  oblivion  are  wrapping  Him  round,  as  He 
moves  slowly  to  the  doom  which  besets  Him  in  com- 
mon with  all  the  great  names  of  the  world.  The  wish 
is  father  to  the  thought.  Christ  is  not  done  with 
yet,  nor  has  the  world  done  with  Him,  nor  is  He  less 
available  for  the  necessities  of  this  generation,  with 
its  perplexities  and  difficulties,  than  He  was  in  the 
past.  His  sameness  is  consistent  with  an  infinite 
unfolding  of  new  preciousness  and  new  powers,  as 
new  generations  with  new  questions  arise,  and  the 
world  seeks  for  fresh  guidance.  '  I  write  no  new  com- 
mandment unto  you';  I  preach  no  new  Christ  unto 
you,  'again,  a  new  commandment  I  write  unto  you,' 
and  every  generation  will  find  new  impulse,  new 
teaching,  new  shaping  energies,  social  and  individual, 
ecclesiastical,  theological,  intellectual,  in  the  old  Christ 
who  was  crucified  for  our  offences  and  raised  again  for 
our  justification,  and  remains  'the  same  yesterday,  and 
to-day,  and  for  ever.' 

IV.  Lastly,  look  at  these  words  in  their  application 
to  the  relation  between  the  unchanging  Christ  and  the 
eternal  life  of  heaven. 

The  '  for  ever '  of  my  text  is  not  to  be  limited  to  this 
present  life,  but  it  runs  on  into  the  remotest  future, 
and  summons  up  before  us  the  grand  and  boundless 
prospect  of  an  eternal  unfolding  and  reception  of 
new  beauties  in  the  old  earthly  Christ.  For  Him  the 
change  between  the  'to-day'  of  His  earthly  life  and 
the  'for  ever'  of  His  ascended  glory  made  no  change 
in  the  tenderness  of  His  heart,  the  sweetness  of  His 
smile,  the  nearness  of  His  helping  hand.  The  beloved 
apostle,  when  he  saw  Him  for  the  first  time  after  He 


V.  8]        THE  UNCHANGING  CHRIST        293 

was  ascended,  fell  at  His  feet  as  dead,  because  the 
attributes  of  His  nature  had  become  so  glorious.  But 
when  the  old  hand,  the  same  hand  that  had  been 
pierced  with  the  nails  on  the  Cross,  though  it  now 
held  the  seven  stars,  was  laid  upon  him,  and  the  old 
voice,  the  same  voice  that  had  spoken  to  him  in  the 
upper  room,  and  in  feebleness  from  the  Cross,  though 
it  was  now  as  the  '  sound  of  many  waters,'  said  to  him, 
*  Fear  not,  I  am  the  first  and  the  last ;  I  am  He  that 
liveth  and  was  dead  and  am  alive  for  ever  more ' ;  John 
learned  that  the  change  from  the  Cross  to  the  throne 
touched  but  the  circumference  of  his  Master's  being, 
and  left  the  whole  centre  of  His  love  and  brotherhood 
wholly  unaffected. 

Nor  will  the  change  for  us,  from  earth  to  the  close 
communion  of  the  heavens,  bring  us  into  contact  with 
a  changed  Christ.  It  will  be  but  like  the  experience 
of  a  man  starting  from  the  outermost  verge  of  the 
solar  system,  where  that  giant  planet  welters,  away 
out  in  the  darkness  and  the  cold,  and  travelling 
inwards  ever  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  central  light, 
the  warmth  becoming  more  fervent,  the  radiance  be- 
coming more  wondrous,  as  he  draws  closer  and  closer  to 
the  greatness  which  he  divined  when  he  was  far  away, 
and  which  he  knows  better  when  he  is  beside  it.  It 
will  be  the  same  Christ,  the  Mediator,  the  Revealer  in 
heaven,  whom  we  here  dimly  saw  and  knew  to  be  the 
Sun  of  our  souls  through  the  clouds  and  mists  of  earth. 
That  radiant  and  eternal  sameness  will  consist  with  con- 
tinual variety,  and  an  endless  streaming  forth  of  new 
lustres  and  new  powers.  But  through  all  the  growing 
proximity  and  illumination  of  the  heavens  He  will  be 
the  same  Jesus  that  we  knew  upon  earth;  still  the 
Friend  and  the  Lover  of  our  souls. 


294  HE B RE  WS  [ch.  xiii. 

So,  dear  friends,  if  you  and  I  have  Ilim  for  our  very 
own,  then  we  do  not  need  to  fear  change,  for  change 
will  be  progress ;  nor  loss,  for  loss  will  be  gain ;  nor 
the  storm  of  life,  which  will  drive  us  to  His  breast; 
nor  the  solitude  of  death,  for  our  Shepherd  will  be 
with  us  there.  He  will  be  'the  same  for  ever'; 
though  we  shall  know  Him  more  deeply ;  even  as  we 
shall  be  the  same,  though  '  changed  from  glory  into 
glory.'  If  we  have  Him,  we  may  be  sure,  on  earth,  of 
a  *  to-morrow,'  which  '  shall  be  as  this  day,  and  much 
more  abundant.'  If  we  have  Him,  we  may  be  sure  of  a 
heaven  in  which  the  sunny  hours  of  its  unending  day 
will  be  filled  with  fruition  and  ever  new  glories  from 
the  old  Christ  who,  for  earth  and  heaven,  is  'the 
same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever.' 


AN  ESTABLISHED  HEART 

' ...  It  is  a  good  thing  that  the  heart  be  established  with  grace.'— Heb.  xiii.  9. 

This  saymg  immediately  follows  the  exhortation 
with  which  it  is  contrasted :  '  Be  not  carried  away 
with  divers  and  strange  doctrines.'  Now,  it  is  quite 
clear  that  the  unsettlement  and  moving  past  some 
fixed  point  which  are  suggested  in  the  word  'carried 
away'  are  contrasted  with  the  fixedness  which  is 
implied  in  the  main  word  of  our  text.  They  who  are 
established,  •  rooted  and  grounded,'  are  not  apt  to  be 
swept  away  by  the  blasts  of  '  divers  and  strange 
doctrines.'  But  there  is  another  contrast  besides  this, 
and  that  is  the  one  which  exists  between  doctrines 
and  grace;  and  there  is  a  still  further  subsequent  con- 
trast in  the  words  that  follow  my  text,  *  It  is  a  good 


V.9]         AN  ESTABLISHED  HEART  295 

thing  that  the  heart  be  established  with  grace ;  not 
with  meats. 

Now  I  need  not  trouble  you  with  the  question  as 
to  what  was  the  original  reference  of  either  of  these 
two  expressions,  'doctrines'  and  'meats,'  or  whether 
they  both  point  to  some  one  form  of  teaching.  What 
I  rather  ^vant  to  emphasise  here,  in  a  sentence,  is  how, 
in  these  three  principal  words  of  three  successive 
clauses,  we  get  three  aspects  of  the  religious  life — two 
of  them  spurious  and  partial,  one  of  them  sufficing  and 
complete — '  teachings  ' ;  '  grace  ' ;  '  meats.'  Turned  into 
modern  English,  the  writer's  meaning  is  that  the 
merely  intellectual  religion,  which  is  always  occupied 
wuth  propositions  instead  of  with  Jesus  Christ,  '  Who 
is  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  for  ever,'  is  worth- 
less, and  the  merely  ceremonial  religion,  which  is  always 
occupied  with  casuistries  about  questions  of  meats,  or 
external  observance  of  any  sort,  is  as  valueless.  There 
is  no  fixity ;  there  is  no  rest  of  soul,  no  steadfastness  of 
character  to  be  found  in  either  of  these  two  directions. 
The  only  thing  that  ballasts  and  fills  and  calms  the 
heart  is  what  the  writer  here  calls  'grace,'  that  is  to 
say,  the  living  personal  experience  of  the  love  of  God 
bestowed  upon  me  and  dwelling  in  my  heart.  You 
may  have  doctrines  chattered  to  all  eternity,  and  you 
may  be  so  occupied  about  the  externals  of  religion  as 
that  you  never  come  near  its  centre,  and  its  centre  is 
that  great  thing  which  is  here  called  'grace,'  which 
alone  has  power  to  establish  the  man's  heart. 

So,  then,  the  main  theme  of  these  words  is  the 
possible  stability  of  a  fluctuating  human  life,  the 
means  of  securing  it,  and  the  glory  and  beauty  of  the 
character  which  has  secured  it.  Let  us  turn  to  these 
thoughts  for  a  moment. 


296  HEBREWS  [ch.  xin. 

I.  First,  then,  mark  what  this  writer  conceives  to  bo 
the  one  source  of  human  stability. 

'It  is  a  good  thing  that  the  heart  be  established  with 
grace.'  Now  I  have  a  strong  suspicion  that  a  great 
deal  of  preaching  goes  over  the  heads  of  the  hearers, 
because  preachers  have  not  gauged  the  ignorance  of 
their  auditory,  and  that,  howsoever  familiar  to  the  ear 
the  key-words  of  Christian  revelation  may  be,  it  by  no 
means  follows  that  there  is  any  definite  and  clear  idea 
attached  to  these.  So  I  do  not  think  that  it  will  be  a 
waste  of  time  for  just  a  minute  or  two  to  try  and  put, 
as  plainly  as  I  can,  what  the  New  Testament  means  by 
this  familiar  and  frequently  reiterated  word  'grace,' 
which,  I  suspect,  is  oftener  pronounced  than  it  is  under- 
stood by  a  great  many  people. 

To  begin  with,  then,  the  root  meaning  of  that  word, 
which  runs  all  through  the  New  Testament,  is  simply 
favour,  benignity,  kindness,  or  to  put  all  into  a  better 
and  simpler  form,  the  active  love  of  God.  Now,  if  we 
look  at  the  various  uses  of  the  expression  we  find,  for 
instance,  that  it  is  contrasted  with  a  number  of  other 
things.  Sometimes  it  is  set  in  opposition  to  sin — sin 
reigns  to  righteousness,  grace  reigns  to  life.  Some- 
times it  is  contrasted  with  '  debt,'  and  sometimes  put 
in  opposition  to  'works,'  as,  for  instance,  by  Paul  when 
he  says,  'If  it  be  of  works  then  is  it  no  more  grace.' 
Sometimes  it  is  opposed  to  law,  as  in  the  same  apostle's 
words,  'Ye  are  not  under  law,  but  under  grace.' 
Now,  if  we  keep  these  various  uses  and  contrasts  in 
view  we  just  come  to  this  thought,  that  that  active 
love  of  God  is  conditioned,  not  by  any  merit  on  our 
part — bubbles  up  from  the  depths  of  His  own  infinite 
heart,  not  because  of  what  we  are,  but  because  of  what 
He  is,  transcends  all  the  rigid  retributions  of  law,  is  not 


V.9]         AN  ESTABLISHED  HEART  297 

turned  away  by  any  sin,  but  continues  to  flood  the 
world,  simply  because  it  wells  up  from  the  infinite  and 
changeless  fountain  of  love  in  the  heart  of  God. 

And  then,  from  this  central,  deepest  meaning  of 
active  love  manifesting  itself  irrespective  of  what  wo 
deserve,  there  comes  a  second  great  aspect  of  the  word. 
The  cause  gives  its  name  to  the  effect,  and  the 
communicated  blessings  and  gifts  which  flow  to  men 
from  the  love  of  God  are  designated  by  this  groat 
name.  You  know  we  have  the  same  kind  of  idiom  in 
our  own  tongue.  'Kindness'  is  the  disposition;  *a 
kindness'  is  a  single  deed  which  flows  from  that 
disposition.  '  Favour '  is  the  way  in  which  we  regard  a 
man  ;  *  a  favour '  is  the  act  or  gift  which  manifests  and 
flows  from  the  regard.  The  water  in  the  pitchers  is 
the  same  as  the  water  in  the  spring.  The  name  of  the 
cause  is  extended  to  all  the  lustrous  variety  of  its 
effects.  So  the  complex  whole  of  the  blessings  and 
gifts  which  Jesus  Christ  brings  to  us,  and  which  are 
sometimes  designated  in  view  of  what  they  do  for  us, 
as  salvation  or  eternal  life,  are  also  designated  in  view 
of  that  in  God  from  which  they  come,  as  being  collec- 
tively His  '  grace.' 

All  the  gifts  that  Christ  brings  are,  we  may  say,  but 
the  love  of  God  made  visible  in  its  bestowal  upon  us. 
The  meteor  that  rushes  through  space  catches  fire 
when  it  passes  into  our  atmosphere.  The  love  of  God, 
when  it  comes  into  our  manifold  necessities,  is  made 
visible  in  the  large  gifts  which  it  bestows  upon  them. 

And  then  there  is  a  final  application  of  the  expres- 
sion which  is  deduced  from  that  second  one — viz.,  the 
specific  and  individual  excellences  of  character  or 
conduct  which  result  from  the  communication  to  men 
of  the  blessings  that  flow  to  Him  from  the  love  of  God. 


298  HEBREWS  [on.  xm. 

So  these  three  :  first  the  fountain,  the  love  undisturbed 
and  unalterable;  second,  the  stream,  the  manifold  gifts 
and  blessings  that  flow  to  us  through  Christ;  and 
third,  the  little  cupfuls  that  each  of  us  have,  the 
various  beauties  and  excellences  of  character  which 
are  developed  under  the  fertilising  influences  of  the 
sunshine  of  that  love — these  three  are  all  included  in 
this  great  Christian  word. 

There  are  other  phases  of  its  employment  in  the 
New  Testament  which  I  do  not  need  to  trouble  you 
with  now.  But  thus  far  we  just  come  to  this,  that  the 
one  ground  on  which  all  steadfastness  and  calm  tran- 
quillity and  settlement  of  nature  and  character  can  be 
reared  is  that  we  shall  be  in  touch  with  God,  shall  be  con- 
scious of  His  love,  and  shall  be  receiving  into  our  hearts 
the  strength  that  He  bestows.  Man  is  a  dependent 
creature ;  his  make  and  his  relationships  to  things 
round  him  render  it  impossible  that  the  strength  by 
which  he  is  strong  and  the  calmness  by  which  he  is 
established  can  be  self-originated.  They  must  come 
from  without.  There  is  only  one  way  by  which  we  can 
be  kept  from  being  drifted  away  by  the  currents  and 
blown  away  by  the  tempests  that  run  and  range 
through  every  life,  and  that  is  that  we  shall  anchor 
ourselves  on  God.  His  grace,  His  love  possessed,  and 
the  sufficing  gifts  for  all  our  hungry  desires  which 
come  through  that  love  possessed,  these,  and  these 
alone,  are  the  conditions  of  human  stability. 

II.  And  so  I  come,  in  the  second  place,  to  look  at 
some  of  the  various  ways  in  which  this  establishing 
grace  calms  and  stills  the  life. 

We  men  are  like  some  of  the  islands  in  the  Eastern 
Tropics,  fertile  and  luxuriant,  but  subject  to  be  swept 
by    typhoons,  to    be  shaken   by    earthquakes,  to    be 


V.9]         AN  ESTABLISHED  HEART  299 

devastated  by  volcanoes.  Around  us  there  gather 
external  foes  assailing  our  steadfastness,  and  within 
us  there  lie  even  more  formidable  enemies  to  an 
established  and  settled  peace.  We  are  like  men 
carrying  powder  through  a  conflagration;  bearing  a 
whole  magazine  of  combustibles  within  us,  upon  which 
at  any  moment  a  spark  may  alight.  How  are  such 
creatures  ever  to  be  established?  My  text  tells  us  by 
drawing  into  themselves  the  love,  the  giving  love  of 
God  ;  and  in  the  consciousness  of  that  love,  and  in  the 
rest  of  spirit  that  comes  from  the  true  possession  of 
its  gifts,  there  will  be  found  the  secret  of  tranquillity 
for  the  most  storm-ridden  life. 

I  would  note,  as  one  of  the  aspects  of  the  tranquillity 
and  establishment  that  comes  from  this  conscious 
possession  of  the  giving  love  of  God,  how  it  delivers 
men  from  all  the  dangers  of  being  '  carried  away  by 
divers  strange  doctrines.'  I  do  not  give  much  for  any 
orthodoxy  which  is  not  vitalised  by  personal  experiences 
of  the  indwelling  love  of  God.  I  do  not  care  much 
what  a  man  believes,  or  what  he  denies,  or  how  ho 
may  occupy  himself  intellectually  with  the  philosophical 
and  doctrinal  aspect  of  Christian  revelation.  The 
question  is,  how  much  of  it  has  filtered  from  his  brain 
into  his  heart,  and  has  become  part  of  himself,  and 
verified  to  himself  by  his  own  experience?  So  much, 
and  not  one  hairbreadth  more,  of  the  Christian  creed 
is  your  creed.  So  much  as  you  have  lived  out,  so  much 
you  are  sure  of  because  you  have  not  only  thought  it 
but  felt  it,  and  cannot  for  a  moment  doubt,  because 
your  hearts  have  risen  up  and  witnessed  to  its  truth. 
About  these  parts  of  your  belief  there  will  be  no 
fluctuation.  There  is  no  real  and  permanent  grasp  of 
any  parts  of  religfious  truth  except  such  as  is  verified 


300  HEBREWS  [ch.  xm. 

by  personal  experience.  And  that  sturdy  blind  man 
in  the  gospels  had  got  hold  of  the  true  principle  of  the 
most  convincing  Christian  apologetics  when  he  said, 
'You  may  talk  as  long  as  you  lilce  about  the  question 
whether  this  man  is  a  sinner  or  not ;  settle  it  anyhow 
you  please.  One  thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I  was 
blind  now  I  see.'  The  'grace'  that  had  come  to  him 
in  a  purely  external  form  established  as  a  foundation 
axiom  for  his  thinking,  that  the  man  who  had  done 
that  for  him  was  a  messenger  from  God.  That  is  the 
way  by  which  you  will  come  to  a  hold  worth  calling 
so  of  Christian  truth,  and  unless  you  come  to  it  by 
that  hold  it  does  not  matter  much  whether  you  believe 
it  or  deny  it  all. 

But,  if  there  be  such  a  living  consciousness  of  the 
true  possession  of  God's  love  giving  you  these  blessings, 
then  with  great  equanimity  and  openness  of  mind  you 
can  regard  the  discussion  that  may  be  raging  about  a 
great  many  so-called  '  burning '  questions.  If  I  know 
that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  me,  and  that  my  soul  is 
saved  because  He  did,  it  does  not  matter  very  much  to 
me  who  wrote  the  Pentateuch,  or  whether  the  Book 
of  Jonah  is  a  parable  or  a  history.  I  can  let  all  such 
questions — and  I  only  refer  to  these  as  specimens — be 
settled  by  appropriate  evidence,  by  the  experts,  without 
putting  myself  in  a  fluster,  and  can  say,  '  I  am  not 
going  to  be  carried  away.  My  heart  is  established  in 
grace.' 

Still  further,  this  conscious  possession  of  the  grace  of 
God  will  keep  a  man  very  quiet  amidst  all  the  occasions 
for  agitation  which  changing  circumstances  bring. 
Such  there  are  in  every  life.  Nothing  continues  in  one 
stay.  Thunder-claps,  earthquakes,  tempests,  shocks 
of  doom  come  to  every  one  of  us.    Is  it  possible  that 


V.  9]         AN  ESTABLISHED  HEART         801 

amidst  this  continuous  fluctuation,  in  which  nothing  is 
changeless  but  the  fact  of  change,  we  can  stand  fixed 
and  firm  ?    Yes  !    As  they  say  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Border,  there  is  a  '  lown '  place  at  the  back  of  the  wall. 
There  is  shelter  only  in  one  spot,  and  that  is  when  we 
have  God  between  us  and  the  angry  blast.     And  oh, 
brother,  if  there  steal  into  a  man's  heart,  and  be  faith- 
fully kept  there,  the  quiet  thought  that  God  is  with 
him,  to  bless  and  keep  and  communicate  to  him  all 
that  he  needs,  why  should  he  be  troubled  ?    '  He  shall 
not  be  afraid  of  evil  tidings.'    What!    In  this  world 
full  of  evil?    Yes.     'He  shall   not  be  afraid  of  evil 
tidings.     His  heart  is  fixed ;  trusting  in  the  Lord.'    An 
empty  heart  is  an  easily  agitated  heart.    A  full  heart, 
like  a  full  sack,  stands  upright,  and  it  is  not  so  easy  for 
the  wind  to  whirl  it  about  as  if  it  were  empty.    They 
who  are  rooted  in  God  will  have  a  firm  bole,  which 
will  be  immovable,  howsoever   branches   may    sway 
and  creak,  and  leaves  may  flutter  and  dance,  or  even 
fall,  before  the  power  of  the  storm.     They  who  have 
no  hold  upon  that  grace  are  like  the  chaff  which  the 
wind  drives  from  the  threshing-floor.    The  storms  of 
life  will  sweep  you  away  unless  the  heart  be '  established 
in  grace.' 

Further,  another  form  of  the  stability  communicated 
by  that  possessed  love  of  God  is  in  regard  to  the 
internal  occasions  for  agitation.  Passion,  lust,  hot 
desires,  bitter  regrets,  eager  clutching  after  uncertain 
and  insufficient  and  perishable  good,  all  these  will  be 
damped  down  if  the  love  of  God  lives  in  our  hearts. 
Oh,  brethren,  it  is  ourselves  that  disturb  ourselves, 
and  not  the  world  that  disturbs  us.  'There  is  no  joy 
but  calm';  and  there  is  no  calm  but  in  tlie  possession 
of  the  grace  which  is  the  giving  love  of  God. 


302  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

III.  Lastly,  my  text  suggests  how  beautiful  a  thing 
is  the  character  of  the  man  that  is  established  in 
grace. 

The  word  translated  'good'  in  my  text  would  be 
better  rendered  'fair,'  or  'lovely,'  or  'beautiful,'  or 
some  such  expression  conveying  the  idea  that  the 
writer  was  thinking,  not  so  much  about  the  essential 
goodness  as  about  the  beauty,  in  visible  appearance, 
of  a  character  which  was  thus  established  by  grace. 
Is  there  anything  fairer  than  the  strong,  steadfast, 
calm,  equable  character,  unshaken  by  the  storms  of 
passion,  unaffected  by  the  blasts  of  calamity,  un- 
devastated  by  the  lava  from  the  hellish  subterranean 
fires  that  are  in  every  soul;  and  yet  not  stolidly 
insensible  nor  obstinately  conservative,  but  open  to 
the  inspiration  of  each  successive  moment,  and  gath- 
ering the  blessed  fruit  of  all  mutability  in  a  more 
profound  and  unchanging  possession  of  the  unchanging 
good?  Surely  the  gospel  which  brings  to  men  the 
possibility  of  being  thus  established  brings  to  them 
the  highest  ideal  of  fair  human  character. 

So  do  you  see  to  it  that  you  rectify  your  notions  of 
what  makes  the  beauty  of  character.  There  is  many 
a  poor  old  woman  in  a  garret  who  presents,  if  not 
to  men,  at  any  rate  to  angels  and  to  God,  a  far  fairer 
character  than  the  vulgar  ideals  which  most  people 
have.  The  beauty  of  meek  patience,  of  persistent 
endeavour,  of  calm,  steadfast  trust,  is  fairer  than  all 
the  'purple  patches'  which  the  world  admires  because 
they  are  gaudy,  and  which  an  eye  educated  by  looking 
at  Jesus  turns  from  with  disgust.  And  do  you  see  to 
it  that  you  cultivate  that  type  of  excellence.  It  is  a 
great  deal  easier  to  cultivate  other  kinds.  It  is  hard 
to  be  quiet,  hard  to  rule  one's  stormy  nature,  hard  to 


V.9]  OUR  ALTAR  803 

stand  'foursquare  to  every  wind  that  blows.'  But  it  is 
possible — possible  on  one  condition,  that  we  drive  our 
roots  through  all  the  loose  shingle  on  the  surface,  'the 
things  seen  and  temporal,'  and  penetrate  to  the  eternal 
substratum  that  lies  beneath  it  all. 

Then,  my  brother,  if  we  keep  ourselves  near  Jesus 
Christ,  and  let  His  grace  flow  into  our  hearts,  then  we, 
too,  shall  be  able  to  say,  'Because  I  set  Him  at  my 
right  hand  I  shall  not  be  moved,'  and  we  may  be  able 
to  carry,  by  His  grace,  even  through  the  storms  of  life 
and  amidst  all  the  agitations  of  our  own  passions  and 
desires,  a  steady  light,  neither  blown  about  by  tempests 
without,  nor  pulsating  with  alternations  of  brightness 
and  dimness  by  reason  of  intermittent  supj^lios  from 
within,  but  blazing  with  the  steadfast  splendour  of 
the  morning  star,  '  He  that  believeth  shall  not  make 
haste.' 


OUR  ALTAR 

'  We  have  an  altar,  whereof  they  have  no  right  to  eat  which  serve  the  taber- 
nacle. 15.  By  him  therefore  let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise  to  God  continually.' 
— Heb.  xiii.  10, 15. 

'We  have  an  altar.'  There  is  a  certain  militant  em- 
phasis on  the  words  in  the  original,  as  if  they  were  an 
assertion  of  something  that  had  been  denied.  Who 
the  deniers  are  is  plain  enough.  They  were  the  ad- 
herents of  Judaism,  who  naturally  found  Christianity 
a  strange  contrast  to  their  worship,  of  which  altar  and 
sacrifice  were  prominent  features. 

Just  as  to  heathen  nations  the  ritual  of  Judaism,  its 
empty  shrine,  and  temple  without  a  God,  were  a  puzzle 
end  a  scoff,  so  to  heathen  and  Jew,  the  bare,  starved 


304  HEBREWS  [en.  xiii. 

worship  of  the  Church,  without  temple,  priest,  sacrifice, 
or  altar,  was  a  mystery  and  a  puzzle. 

The  writer  of  this  letter  in  those  words,  then,  in 
accordance  with  the  central  theme  of  his  whole 
Epistle,  insists  that  Christianity  has  more  truly  than 
heathenism  or  Judaism,  altar  and  sacrifice. 

And  he  is  not  content  with  alleging  its  possession  of 
the  reality  of  the  altar,  but  he  goes  further,  insists 
upon  the  superiority,  even  in  that  respect,  of  the 
Christian  system. 

He  points  to  the  fact  that  the  great  sin-offering  of 
the  Jewish  ritual  was  not  partaken  of  by  the  offerers, 
but  consumed  by  fire  without  the  camp,  and  he  implies, 
in  the  earlier  words  of  my  text,  that  the  Christian 
sacrifice  differs  from,  and  is  superior  to,  the  Jewish 
in  this  particular,  that  on  it  the  worshippers  feasted 
and  fed. 

Then,  in  the  last  words  of  my  text,  he  touches  upon 
another  point  of  superiority — viz.,  that  all  Christian 
men  are  priests  of  this  altar,  and  have  to  offer  upon 
it  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving. 

And  so  he  exalts  the  purely  spiritual  worship  of 
Christianity  as  not  only  possessed  of  all  which  the 
gorgeous  rituals  round  about  it  presented,  but  as 
being  high  above  them  even  in  regard  to  that  which 
seemed  their  special  prerogative.  So,  then,  we  have 
three  things  here — our  Christian  altar ;  our  Christian 
feast  on  the  sacrifice ;  and  our  Christian  sacrifices  on 
the  altar.    Let  us  regard  these  successively. 

I.  First,  then,  our  Christian  altar. 

'We  have'  says  the  writer,  with  a  triumphant 
emphasis  upon  the  word,  '  We  have  an  altar' ;  ' though 
there  seems  none  visible  in  our  external  worship ;  and 
some  of  our  converts  miss  the  sensuous  presentation 


vs.  10,15]  OUR  ALTAR  805 

to  which  they  were  accustomed;  and  others  are 
puzzled  by  it,  and  taunt  us  with  its  absence,' 

Now  it  is  to  be  noticed,  I  think,  that  though  in 
sacrificial  religions  the  altar  is  the  centre-point  round 
which  the  temple  is  reared,  it  is  of  no  moment  in  itself, 
and  only  comes  into  consideration  as  being  that  upon 
which  the  sacrifice  is  offered.  So  I  do  not  suppose 
that  any  specific  object  was  in  the  mind  of  the  writer 
as  answering  to  the  altar  in  those  sacrificial  systems. 
He  was  thinking  most  of  the  sacrifice  that  was  laid 
upon  the  altar,  and  of  the  altar  only  in  connection 
therewith.  But  if  we  are  not  satisfied  with  such  an 
explanation  of  the  words,  there  are  two  interpreta- 
tions open  to  us. 

One  is  that  the  Cross  is  the  altar.  But  that  seems  to 
me  too  gross  and  material,  and  savouring  too  much  of 
the  very  error  which  this  whole  Epistle  is  written  to 
destroy — viz.,  that  the  material  is  of  moment,  as 
measured  against  the  spiritual.  The  other  explanation 
is  much  to  be  preferred,  according  to  which,  if  the 
altar  has  any  special  significance,  it  means  the  divine- 
human  personality  of  Jesus  Christ,  on  and  in  which 
the  sacrifice  is  offered. 

But  the  main  thing  to  be  laid  hold  of  here  is,  I  take 
it,  that  the  central  fact  of  Christianity  is  an  altar,  on 
which  lies  a  sacrifice.  If  we  ar?  to  accept  the  signifi- 
cance that  I  have  suggested  as  possible  for  the  emblem 
of  my  text,  then  the  altar  expresses  the  great  mystery 
and  gospel  of  the  Incarnation,  and  the  sacrifice  ex- 
presses the  great  mystery  and  gospel  of  the  passion 
of  Christ's  life  and  death,  which  is  the  atonement  for 
our  sins. 

But  that  possibly  is  too  much  of  a  refinement,  and 
so  I  confine  myself  here  to  the  general  ideas  suggested 

U 


306  HEBREWS  [en.  xiii. 

— that  the  very  living  heart  of  the  gospel  is  an  altar 
and  a  sacrifice.  That  idea  saturates  the  whole  New 
Testament,  from  the  page  where  John  the  forerunner's 
proclamation  is,  'Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,'  to  the  last  triumph- 
ant vision  in  which  the  Apocalyptic  seer  'beheld  a  Lamb 
as  it  had  been  slain';  the  eternal  Co-Regnant  of  the 
universe,  and  the  mediation  through  whom  the  whole 
surrounding  Church  for  ever  worships  the  Father. 

The  days  are  past,  as  it  seems  to  me,  when  any  man 
can  reasonably  contend  that  the  New  Testament  does 
not  teach — in  every  page  of  it,  I  was  going  to  say— this 
truth  of  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ.  Time  was  when 
violent  contortions  and  effort  were  resorted  to  in  order 
to  explain  its  language  as  not  necessarily  involving  that 
significance.  But  we  have  got  beyond  that  now,  and 
we  oftener  hear  from  dcniers  this :  '  Oh  yes !  I  admit 
that  throughout  the  New  Testament  this  sacrificial 
idea  is  present,  but  that  is  only  a  chip  of  the  old  shell 
of  Judaism,  and  we  are  above  that  level  of  religious 
thought.* 

Now,  I  am  not  going  to  enter  upon  a  discussion,  for 
which  neither  place  nor  time  are  suited ;  but  I  will 
just  suggest  that  the  relation  between  the  ancient 
system  of  revelation,  with  its  sacrifice,  altar,  priest, 
temple,  and  the  new  system  of  Christianity  is  far  more 
profoundly,  and,  I  believe,  far  more  philosophically, 
set  forth  in  this  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  as  being  the 
relation  between  shadow  and  substance,  between  pro- 
phecy and  fulfilment,  than  when  the  old  is  contemp- 
tuously brushed  aside  as  '  Hebrew  old  clothes,'  with 
which  the  true  Christianity  has  no  concern.  Judaism 
was  because  Christ  was  to  be,  and  the  ancient  ritual 
(whether  modern  ideas  of  the  date  of  its  origin  be 


vs.  10,15]  OUR  ALTAR  807 

accepted  or  no)  was  a  God-appointed  mirror,  in  which 
the  shadow  of  the  coming  event  was  presented.  Jesus 
Christ  is  all  which  temple,  priest,  altar,  sacrifice  pro- 
claimed should  one  day  be.  And  just  as  the  relation 
between  Christ's  work  and  the  Judaic  system  of  ex- 
ternal ritual  sacrifices  is  that  of  shadow  and  substance, 
prophecy  and  fulfilment,  so,  in  analogous  manner,  the 
relation  between  the  altar  and  sacrifice  of  the  New 
Testament  and  all  the  systems  of  heathenism,  with 
their  smoking  altars,  is  that  these  declare  a  want,  and 
this  affords  its  supply ;  that  these  are  the  confession  of 
humanity  that  it  is  conscious  of  sin,  separation,  aliena- 
tion, and  that  need  of  a  sacrifice,  and  that  Christ  is 
what  heathenism  in  all  lands  has  wailed  that  it  needs, 
and  has  desperately  hoped  that  it  might  find. 

There  are  many  attempts  made  to  explain  on  other 
grounds  the  universality  of  sacrifice,  and  to  weaken  the 
force  of  its  witness  to  the  deep  necessities  of  humanity 
as  rooted  in  the  consciousness  of  sin,  but  I  venture  to 
afiirm  that  all  these  are  superficial,  and  that  the  study 
of  comparative  religions  goes  on  wrong  lines  unless 
it  recognises  in  the  whole  heathen  world  a  longing, 
the  supply  of  which  it  recognises  in  Jesus  Christ  and 
His  work.  I  venture  to  say  that  that  is  a  truer  philo- 
sophy of  religion  than  much  that  nowadays  calls 
itself  by  the  name. 

And  what  lies  in  this  great  thought  ?  I  am  not  going 
to  attempt  a  theory  of  the  Atonement.  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  such  thing  is  completely  possible  for 
us.  But  this,  at  least,  I  recognise  as  being  funda- 
mental and  essential  to  the  thought  of  my  text ;  'we 
have  an  altar,'  that  Christ  in  His  representative  rela- 
tion, in  His  true  affinity  to  every  man  upon  earth,  has  in 
His  life  or  death  taken  upon  Himself  the  consequences 


308  HEBREWS  [en.  xiii. 

of  human  tran^igression,  not  merely  by  sympathy, 
nor  only  by  reason  of  the  uniqueness  of  His  repre- 
sentative relation,  but  by  willing  submission  to  that 
awful  separation  from  the  Father,  of  which  the  cry  out 
of  the  thick  darkness  of  the  Cross,  '  Why  hast  Thou 
forsaken  Me?'  is  the  unfathomable  witness.  Thus, 
bearing  our  sin,  He  bears  it  away,  and '  we  have  an  altar.' 
Now  notice  that  this  great  truth  has  a  distinct  teach- 
ing for  those  who  hanker  after  externalities  of  ritual. 
The  writer  of  this  Ej^istle  uses  it  for  the  purpose  of 
declaring  that  in  the  Christian  Church,  because  of  its 
possession  of  the  true  sacrifice,  there  is  no  room  for 
any  other ;  that  priest,  temple,  altar,  sacrifice  in  any 
material  external  forms  are  an  anachronism  and  a 
contradiction  of  the  very  central  idea  of  the  gospel. 
And  it  seems  very  strange  that  sections  of  Christendom 
should  so  have  been  blind  to  the  very  meaning  of  my 
text,  and  so  missed  the  lesson  which  it  teaches,  and 
fallen  into  the  error  which  it  opposes,  as  that  these  very 
words,  which  are  a  protest  against  any  materialisation 
of  the  idea  of  altar  and  sacrifice,  should  have  been 
twisted  to  mean  by  the  altar  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and 
by  sacrifice  the  communion  of  His  body  and  blood. 
But  so  it  is.  So  strong  are  the  tendencies  in  our  weak 
humanity  to  grasp  at  some  sensuous  embodiment  of 
the  truth  that  the  Christian  Church,  as  a  w^hole,  has  not 
been  able  to  keep  on  the  lofty  levels  of  my  text,  and 
has  hungered  after  some  external  signs  to  which  it 
may  attach  notions  of  efficacy  which  attach  only  to  the 
spiritual  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ.  Thus  we  have  got  a 
strange  contradiction,  as  it  seems  to  me,  of  the  spirit 
and  letter  of  my  text,  and  of  the  whole  Epistle  from 
which  it  comes,  and  there  has  crept  surreptitiously 
into,  and  been  obstinately  maintained  in,  large  sections 


vs.  10,15]  OUR  ALTAR  809 

of  the  Christian  Church  the  idea  of  a  sacrificing  priest- 
hood, and  of  a  true  sacrifice  offered  upon  a  material 
altar.  My  text  protests  against  all  that,  and  said  to 
these  early  Christians  what  it  says  to  us :  '  Go  into 
your  upper  rooms  and  there  offer  your  worship,  which 
to  sense  seems  so  bare  and  starved.  Never  mind 
though  people  say  there  is  nothing  in  your  system  for 
sense  to  lay  hold  of.  So  much  the  better.  Never  mind 
though  you  can  present  no  ritual  with  an  altar,  and 
a  priest,  and  a  sacrifice.  All  these  are  swept  away  for 
ever,  because  once  Jesus  Christ  hath  put  away  sin  by 
the  sacrifice  of  Himself.  Our  temple  is  His  body;  our 
priest  is  before  the  throne.  We  rear  no  altar;  He  has 
died.  Our  sacrifice  was  offered  on  Calvary,  and  hence- 
forward our  worship,  cleared  from  these  materialities, 
rises  unto  loftier  regions,  and  we  worship  God  in  the 
spirit,  and  have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh.' 

Still  further,  this  truth  has  a  bearing  on  the  oppo- 
site pole  of  error,  on  those  who  would  fain  have  a 
Christianity  without  an  altar.  I  am  not  going  to  say 
how  far  genuine  discipleship  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
possible  with  the  omission  of  this  article  from  the 
creed.  It  is  no  business  of  mine  to  determine  that, 
but  it  is  my  business,  as  I  think,  to  assert  this,  that  a 
Christianity  without  an  altar  is  a  Christianity  without 
pow^er ;  impotent  to  move  the  world  or  to  control  the 
individual  heart,  inadequate  to  meet  the  needs  and  the 
cravings  of  men.  Where  are  the  decaying  Christians  ? 
Where  are  the  Christians  that  haA^e  let  go  the  central 
fact  of  an  incarnate  sacrifice  for  the  world's  sin  ?  The 
answer  to  the  two  questions  is  the  same.  Wherever 
you  find  a  feeble  grasp  of  that  central  truth,  or  a 
faltering  utterance  of  it  on  the  part  of  the  preachers, 
there  you  find  deadness  and  formality. 


310  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

Jesus  Christ,  and  Jesus  Christ's  servants,  I  was 
going  to  say,  obey  the  same  law,  and  that  law  is,  no 
cross,  no  crown.  If  Christ  has  not  died,  the  world's 
sacrifice,  He  will  never  reign,  the  world's  King.  If 
His  Cross  be  an  altar  it  is  a  throne.  If  it  be  not,  it  is 
merely  a  gallows,  on  which  a  religious  enthusiast, 
with  many  sweet  and  lovable  qualities,  died  a  long 
time  ago,  and  it  is  nothing  to  me.  '  We  have  an  altar/ 
or  else  we  have  no  religion  worth  keeping. 

11.  Mark  here,  secondly,  our  feast  on  the  sacrifice. 

From  this  altar,  says  the  writer,  the  adherents  of 
the  ancient  system  have  no  right  to  partake.  That 
implies  that  those  who  have  left  the  ancient  system 
have  the  right  to  partake,  and  do  partake.  Now  the 
writer  is  drawing  a  contrast,  which  he  proceeds  to 
elaborate,  between  the  great  sacrifice  on  the  Day  of 
Atonement  and  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  on  the  Cross. 
The  former  was  not,  as  many  other  sacrifices  were, 
partaken  of  by  priests  and  worshippers,  but  simply 
the  blood  was  brought  within  the  holy  place,  and  the 
whole  of  the  rest  of  the  sacrifice  consumed  in  a  waste 
spot  without  the  camp.  And  this  contrast  is  in  the 
writer's  mind.  We  have  a  sacrifice  on  which  we  feast. 
That  is  to  say,  the  Christ  who  died  for  my  sins  is 
not  only  my  means  of  reconciliation  with  God,  but 
His  sacrifice  and  death  are  the  sustenance  of  my 
spiritual  life.  We  live  upon  the  Christ  that  died  for 
us.  That  this  is  no  mere  metaphor,  but  goes  pene- 
tratingly and  deep  down  to  the  very  basis  of  the 
spiritual  life,  is  attested  sufficiently  by  many  a  word 
of  Scripture  on  which  I  cannot  now  dwell.  The  life 
of  the  Christian  is  the  indwelling  Christ.  For  ho 
whose  heart  hath  not  received  that  Christ  within  him 
is  dead  whilst  he  lives,  and  has  no  possession  of  the 


vs.  10.  15]  OUR  ALTAR  811 

one  true  life  for  a  human  spirit,  viz.,  the  life  of  union 
with  God.  Christ  in  us  is  the  consequence  of  Christ 
for  us ;  and  that  Christianity  is  all  imperfect  which 
does  not  grasp  with  equal  emphasis  the  thought  of 
the  sacrifice  or  the  cross,  and  of  the  feast  or  the 
sacrifice. 

But  how  is  that  feeding  on  the  sacrifice  ac- 
complished? 'He  that  eateth  Me,  even  he  shall 
live  by  Me.'  He  that  believeth,  eateth.  He  that  with 
humble  faith  makes  Christ  his  very  own,  and  appro- 
priates as  the  nourishment  and  basis  of  his  own  better 
life  the  facts  of  the  life  and  death  of  sacrifice,  he  truly 
lives  thereby.    To  eat  is  to  believe ;   to  believe  is  to  live. 

I  need  not  remind  you,  I  suppose,  how,  though 
there  be  no  reference  in  the  words  of  my  text,  as  I 
have  tried  to  show,  to  the  external  rite  of  the  com- 
munion of  the  Lord's  body  and  blood,  and  though  the 
'  altar '  here  has  no  reference  whatever  to  that  table, 
yet  there  is  a  connection  between  the  two  representa- 
tions, inasmuch  as  the  one  declares  in  words  what 
the  other  sets  forth  in  symbol,  and  the  meaning  of 
the  feast  on  the  sacrifice  is  expressed  by  this  great 
word.  '  This  is  My  body,  broken  for  you.'  '  This  is  the 
new  covenant  in  My  blood ' :  '  Drink  ye  all  of  it.'  '  We 
have  an  altar,'  and  though  it  be  not  the  table  on  which 
the  symbols  of  our  Lord's  sacrificial  death  are  spread 
for  us,  yet  these  symbols  and  the  words  of  my  text, 
like  the  words  of  His  great  discourse  in  the  sixth 
chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  point  to  the  same  fact,  that 
the  spiritual  participation  of  Christ  by  faith  is  the 
reality  of  '  eating  of  Him,'  and  the  condition  of  living 
for  ever. 

Ill,  And  now,  lastly,  my  text  suggests  our  Christian 
offerings  on  the  altar. 


312  HEBREWS  [cn.xiii. 

'By  Him,  therefore,  let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of 
praise  to  God  continually.'  What  are  these  offerings  ? 
Christ's  death  stands  alone,  incapable  of  repetition, 
meeting  no  repetition,  the  eternal,  sole,  '  sufficient 
obligation  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world.'  But  there  be  other  kinds  of  sacrifice.  There 
are  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving  as  well  as  for  propitia- 
tion. And  we,  on  the  footing  of  that  great  sacrifice  to 
which  we  can  add  nothing,  and  on  which  alone  we 
must  rest,  may  bring  the  offerings  of  our  thankful 
hearts.  These  offerings  are  of  a  two-fold  sort,  says  the 
writer.  There  are  words  of  praise.  There  are  works 
of  beneficence.  The  service  of  man  is  sacrifice  to  God. 
That  is  a  deep  saying  and  reaches  far.  Such  praise 
and  such  beneficence  are  only  possible  on  the  footing 
of  Christ's  sacrifice,  for  only  on  that  footing  is  our 
praise  acceptable ;  and  only  when  moved  by  that 
infinite  mercy  and  love  shall  we  yield  ourselves,  thank- 
offerings  to  God. 

And  thus,  brethren,  the  whole  extent  of  the  Christian 
life,  in  its  inmost  springs,  and  in  its  outward  mani- 
festations, is  covered  by  these  two  thoughts  —  the 
feast  on  the  sacrifice  once  offered,  and  the  sacrifices 
which  we  in  our  turn  offer  on  the  altar.  If  we  thus, 
moved  by  the  mercy  of  God,  '  yield  ourselves  as  living 
sacrifices,  which  is  our  reasonable  service,'  then  not 
only  will  life  be  one  long  thank-offering,  but  as  the 
Apostle  puts  it  in  another  place,  death  itself  may 
become,  too,  a  thankful  surrender  to  Him.  For  He 
says,  •!  am  ready  to  be  offered.'  And  so  the  thankful 
heart,  resting  on  the  sacrificial  life  and  death  of  Jesus 
Christ,  makes  all  life  a  thanksgiving,  '  death  God's 
endless  mercy  seals,  and  makes  the  sacrifice  complete.' 
There  is  one  Christ  that  can  thus  hallow  and  make 


V8.10,15]      WITHOUT  THE  CAMP  313 

acceptable  our  living  and  our  dying,  and  that  is  the 
Christ  that  has  died  for  us,  and  lives  that  in  Him  we 
may  be  priests  to  God.  There  is  only  one  Christianity 
that  will  do  for  us  what  we  will  need,  and  that  is  the 
Christianity  whose  centre  is  an  altar,  on  which  the 
Son  of  God,  our  Passover,  is  slain  for  us. 


•WITHOUT  THE  CAMP' 

'Let  as  go  forth  therefore  unto  Him  -without  the  camp,  bearing  His  reproach. 
14.  For  hero  have  we  no  continuing  city,  but  wo  seek  ono  to  come.'— Heb.  xiii. 
13, 14. 

Calvary  was  outside  Jerusalem.  That  wholly  acci- 
dental and  trivial  circumstance  is  laid  hold  of  in 
the  context,  in  order  to  give  picturesque  force  to  the 
main  contention  and  purpose  of  this  Epistle.  One  of 
the  solemn  parts  of  the  ritual  of  Judaism  was  the 
great  Day  of  Atonement,  on  which  the  sacrifice  that 
took  away  the  sins  of  the  nation  was  borne  outside 
the  camp,  and  consumed  by  fire,  instead  of  being 
partaken  of  by  the  priests,  as  were  most  of  the  other 
sacrifices.  Our  writer  here  sees  in  these  two  roughly 
parallel  things,  not  an  argument  but  an  imaginative 
illustration  of  great  truths.  Though  he  does  not 
mean  to  say  that  the  death  on  Calvary  was  intended 
to  be  pointed  to  by  the  unique  arrangement  in  question, 
he  does  mean  to  say  that  the  coincidence  of  the  two 
things  helps  us  to  grasp  two  great  truths — one,  that 
Jesus  Christ  really  did  what  that  old  sacrifice  expressed 
the  need  for  having  done,  and  the  other  that,  in  His 
death  on  Calvary,  the  Jewish  nation,  as  one  of  the 
parables  has  it,  'cast  Him  out  of  the  vineyard.'  In 
the  context,  he  urges  this  analogy  between  the  two 
things. 


814  HEBREWS  [ch.xiii. 

But  a  Christ  outside  the  camp  beckons  His  disciples 
to  His  side.  If  any  man  serve  Him,  he  has  to  follow 
Him,  and  the  blessedness,  as  well  as  the  duty,  of  the 
servant  on  earth,  as  well  as  in  heaven,  is  to  be  where 
his  Master  is.  So  the  writer  finds  here  a  picturesque 
way  to  enforce  the  great  lesson  of  his  treatise,  namely, 
that  the  Jewish  adherent  to  Christianity  must  break 
with  Judaism.  In  the  early  stages,  it  was  possible  to 
combine  faith  in  Christ  and  adherence  to  the  Temple 
and  its  ritual.  But  now  that  by  process  of  time  and 
experience  the  Church  has  leaj'iit  better  who  and 
what  Christ  is,  that  which  was  in  part  has  to  be  done 
away,  and  the  Christian  Church  is  to  stand  clear  of 
the  Jewish  synagogue. 

Now  it  is  to  be  distinctly  understood  that  the  words 
of  my  text,  in  the  writer's  intention,  are  not  a  general 
principle  or  exhortation,  but  that  they  are  a  special 
commandment  to  a  certain  class  under  special  circum- 
stances, and  when  we  use  them,  as  I  am  going  to  do 
now,  for  a  wider  purpose,  we  must  remember  that  that 
wider  purpose  was  by  no  means  in  the  writer's  mind. 
What  he  was  thinking  about  was  simply  the  relation 
between  the  Jewish  Christian  and  the  Jewish  com- 
munity. But  if  we  take  them  as  we  may  legitimately 
do  —  only  remembering  that  we  are  diverting  them 
from  their  original  intention  —  as  carrying  more 
general  lessons  for  us,  what  they  seem  to  teach  is 
that  faithful  discipleship  involves  detachment  from 
the  world.  This  commandment,  '  Let  us  go  forth  unto 
Him  without  the  camp,'  stands,  if  you  will  notice, 
between  two  reasons  for  it,  which  buttress  it  up,  as 
it  were,  on  either  side.  Before  it  is  enunciated,  the 
writer  has  been  pointing,  as  I  have  tried  to  show,  to 
the  thought  that  a  Christ  without  the  camp  necessarily 


vs.  13, 14]      WITHOUT  THE  CAMP  815 

involves  disciples  without  the  camp.  And  he  follows 
it  with  another  reason,  '  here  we  have  no  continuing 
city,  but  we  seek  that  which  is  to  come.'  Here,  then,  is 
a  general  principle,  supported  on  either  side  by  a  great 
reason. 

Let  me  first  try  to  set  before  you, 

I.  What  this  detachment  is  not. 

The  Jewish  Christian  was  obliged  utterly  and  out- 
wardly to  break  his  connection  with  Judaism,  on  the 
peril,  if  he  did  not,  of  being  involved  in  its  ruin,  and, 
as  was  historically  the  case  with  certain  Judaising 
sects,  of  losing  his  Christianity  altogether.  It  was  a 
cruel  necessity,  and  no  wonder  that  it  needed  this  long 
letter  to  screw  the  disciples  of  Hebrew  extraction  up 
to  the  point  of  making  the  leap  from  the  sinking  ship 
to  the  deck  of  the  one  that  floated.  The  parallel  does 
not  hold  with  regard  to  us.  The  detachment  from  the 
world,  or  the  coming  out  from  the  camp,  to  which  my 
text  exhorts,  is  not  the  abandonment  of  our  relations 
with  what  the  Bible  calls  'the  world,'  and  what  we 
call — roughly  meaning  the  same  thing — society.  The 
function  of  the  Christian  Church  as  leaven,  involves 
the  necessity  of  being  closely  associated,  and  in  con- 
tact with,  all  forms  of  human  life,  national,  civic, 
domestic,  social,  commercial,  intellectual,  political. 
Does  my  text  counsel  an  opposite  course  ?  '  Go  forth 
without  the  camp,' — does  that  mean  huddle  yourself 
together  into  a  separate  flock,  and  let  the  camp  go  to 
the  devil?  By  no  means.  For  the  society  or  world, 
out  of  which  the  Christian  is  drawn  by  the  attraction 
of  the  Cross,  like  iron  filings  out  of  a  heap  by  a 
magnet,  is  in  itself  good  and  God-appointed.  It  is  He 
'that  sets  the  solitary  in  families.'  It  is  He  that 
gathers  humanity  into  the  bonds  of  civic  and  national 


316  HEBREWS  [<m.  xiii. 

life.  It  IS  He  that  gives  capacities  which  find  their 
sphere,  their  educntion,  and  their  increase  in  the  walks 
of  intellectual  or  commercial  or  political  life.  And  Ho 
does  not  build  up  with  one  hand  and  destroy  with  the 
other,  or  set  men  by  His  providence  in  circumstances 
out  of  which  He  draws  them  by  His  grace.  By  no 
means.  To  go  apart  from  humanity  is  to  miss  the 
very  purpose  for  which  God  has  set  the  Church  in  the 
world.  For  contact  with  the  sick  to  be  healed  is 
requisite  for  healing,  and  they  are  poor  disciples  of 
the  'Friend  of  publicans  and  sinners'  who  prefer  to 
consort  with  Pharisees.  '  Let  both  grow  together  till 
the  harvest ' — the  roots  are  intertwined,  and  it  is  God 
that  has  intertwined  them. 

Now,  I  know  that  one  does  not  need  to  insist  upon 
this  principle  to  the  average  Christianity  of  this  day, 
which  is  only  too  ready  to  mingle  itself  with  the  world, 
but  one  does  need  to  insist  that,  in  so  mingling,  detach- 
ment from  the  world  is  still  to  be  observed ;  and  it  does 
need  to  be  taught  that  Christian  men  are  not  lowering 
the  standard  of  the  Christian  life,  when  they  fling 
themselves  frankly  and  energetically  into  the  various 
forms  of  human  activity,  if  and  only  if,  whilst  they  do 
so,  they  still  remember  and  obey  the  commandment, 
'Let  us  go  forth  unto  Him  without  the  camp.'  The 
commandment  misinterpreted  so  as  to  be  absolutely 
impossible  to  be  obeyed,  becomes  a  snare  to  people 
who  do  not  keep  it,  and  yet  sometimes  feel  as  if  they 
were  to  blame,  because  they  do  not.  And,  there- 
fore, I  turn  in  the  next  place  to  consider — 

IL  What  this  detachment  really  is. 

Will  you  let  me  put  what  I  have  to  say  into  the  shape 
of  two  or  three  plain,  practical  exhortations,  not  because 
I  wish  to  assume  a  position  of  authority  or  command, 


vs.  13,14]      WITHOUT  THE  CAMP  317 

but  only  ia  order  to  givo  vividness  and  point  to  my 
thoughts  ? 

First,  then,  let  us  habitually  nourish  the  inner  life  of 
union  with  Jesus  Christ.  Notice  the  words  of  my  text, 
and  see  what  conies  first  and  what  comes  second.  '  Let 
us  go  forth  unto  Him' — that  is  the  main  thing :  'With- 
out the  camp'  is  second,  and  a  consequence;  'unto 
Him,'  is  primary,  which  is  just  to  say  that  the  highest, 
widest,  noblest,  all-comprehensive  conception  of  what 
a  Christian  life  is,  is  that  it  is  union  with  Jesus  Christ, 
and  whatever  else  it  is  follows  from  that.  The  soul  is 
ever  to  be  looking  up  through  all  the  shadows  and 
shows,  the  changes  and  circumstances,  of  this  fleeting 
present  unto  Him,  and  seeking  to  be  more  closely 
united  with  Him.  Union  with  Him  is  life,  and  separa- 
tion from  Him  is  death.  To  be  so  united  is  to  be  a 
Christian.  Never  mind  about  camps  or  anything  else, 
to  begin  with.  If  the  heart  is  joined  to  Jesus,  then 
all  the  rest  will  come  right.  If  it  is  not,  then  you  may 
make  regulations  as  many  as  you  like,  and  they  will 
only  be  red  tape  to  entangle  your  feet  in.  'Let  us  go 
forth  unto  Him';  that  is  the  sovereign  commandment. 
And  how  is  that  to  be  done?  How  is  it  to  be  done 
but  by  nourishing  habitual  consciousness  of  union 
with  Him  and  life  in  Him,  by  an  habitual  reference 
of  all  our  acts  to  Him  ?  As  the  Roman  Catholics  put 
it,  in  their  hard  external  way,  '  the  practice  of  the 
presence  of  God'  is  the  keynote  to  all  real,  vigorous 
Christianity.  For,  brethren,  such  an  habitual  fellow- 
ship with  Jesus  Christ  is  possible  for  us.  Though  with 
many  interruptions,  no  doubt,  still  ideally  is  it  possible 
that  it  shall  be  continuous  and  real.  It  is  possible, 
perfectly  possible,  that  it  shall  be  a  great  deal  more 
continuous  than,  alas !  it  is  with  many  of  us. 


318  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

Depend  upon  it,  this  nourishing  of  an  inward  life  of 
feUowship  with  Jesus,  so  that  we  may  say,  'our  lives 
are  hid' — hid,  after  all  vigorous  manifestation  and  con- 
sistent action — '  with  Christ  in  God,'  will  not  weaken, 
but  increase,  the  force  with  which  we  act  on  the  things 
seen  and  temporal.  There  is  an  unwholesome  kind  of 
mysticism  which  withdraws  men  from  the  plain  duties 
of  everyday  life;  and  there  is  a  deep,  sane,  whole- 
some, and  eminently  Christian  mysticism  which 
enables  men  to  come  down  with  greater  force,  and 
to  act  with  more  decision,  with  more  energy,  with 
more  effect,  in  all  the  common  deeds  of  life.  The 
greatest  mystics  have  been  the  hardest  workers.  Who 
was  it  that  said,  '  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in 
me'?  That  man  had  gone  far,  very  far,  towards  an 
habitual  consciousness  of  Christ's  presence,  and  it  was 
the  same  man  that  said,  'That  which  cometh  upon  me 
daily  is  the  care  of  all  the  churches.'  The  greatest 
mystic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  saint  that  rode  by  the 
lake  all  day  long,  and  was  so  absorbed  in  contempla- 
tion that  he  said  at  night,  'Where  is  the  lake?'  was 
the  man  that  held  all  the  threads  of  European  politics 
in  his  hands,  and  from  his  cell  at  Clairvaux  guided 
popes,  and  flung  the  nations  of  the  West  into  a 
crusade.  John  Wesley  was  one  of  the  hardest 
workers  that  the  Church  has  ever  had,  and  was  one 
of  those  who  lived  most  habitually  without  the  camp. 
Be  sure  of  this,  that  the  more  our  lives  are  wrapped  in 
Christ,  the  more  energetic  will  they  be  in  the  world.  They 
tell  us  that  the  branches  of  a  spreading  tree  describe 
roughly  the  same  circumference  in  the  atmosphere 
that  its  roots  do  underground,  and  so  far  as  our  roots 
extend  in  Christ,  so  far  will  our  branches  spread  in  the 
world.     'Let  us  go  forth  unto  Him,  without  the  camp.' 


vs.  13,U]      WITHOUT  THE  CAMP  819 

Again,  let  me  say,  do  the  same  things  as  other  people, 
but  with  a  difference.  The  more  our  so-called  civili- 
sation advances,  the  more,  I  was  going  to  say,  mechani- 
cal, or  at  least  largely  released  from  the  control  of  the 
will  and  personal  idiosyncrasy,  become  great  parts  of 
our  work.  The  Christian  weaver  drives  her  looms  very 
much  in  the  same  fashion  that  the  non-Christian  girl 
who  is  looking  after  the  next  set  does.  The  Christian 
clerk  adds  up  his  figures,  and  writes  his  letters,  very 
much  in  the  same  fashion  that  the  worldly  clerk  does. 
The  believing  doctor  visits  his  patients,  and  writes  out 
his  prescriptions  in  the  fashion  that  his  neighbour  who 
is  not  a  Christian  does.  But  there  is  always  room  for 
the  personal  equation — always  !  and  two  lives  may  be, 
superficially  and  roughly,  the  same,  and  yet  there  may 
be  a  difference  in  them  impalpable,  undefinable,  but 
very  obvious  and  very  real  and  very  mighty.  The 
Christian  motive  is  love  to  Jesus  Christ  and  fellowship 
with  Him,  and  that  motive  may  be  brought  to  bear 

upon  all  life — 

•  A  servant  with  this  clause 
Makes  drudgery  divine.' 

He  that  for  Christ's  sake  does  a  common  thing  lifts 
it  out  of  the  fatal  region  of  the  commonplace,  and  makes 
it  great  and  beautiful.  We  do  not  want  from  all  Chris- 
tian people  specifically  Christian  service,  in  the  narrow 
sense  which  that  phrase  has  acquired,  half  so  much  as 
we  want  common  things  done  from  an  uncommon 
motive ;  worldly  things  done  because  of  the  love  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  our  hearts.  And,  depend  upon  it,  just 
as,  from  some  unseen  bank  of  violets,  there  come  odours 
in  opening  spring,  so  from  the  unspoken  and  deeply 
hidden  motive  of  love  to  Jesus  Christ,  there  will  be  a 
fragrance  in  our  commonest  actions   which  all  men 


320  HEBREWS  [en.  xiii. 

will  recognise.  They  tell  us  that  rivers  which  flow 
from  lakes  are  so  clear  that  they  are  tiuged  throughout 
with  celestial  blue,  because  all  the  mud  that  they 
brought  down  from  their  upper  reaches  has  been 
deposited  in  the  still  waters  of  the  lake  from  which 
they  flow;  and  if  from  the  deep  tarn  of  love  to  Jesus 
Christ  in  our  hearts  the  stream  of  our  lives  flows  out, 
it  will  be  like  the  Rhone  below  Geneva,  distinguishable 
from  the  muddy  waters  that  run  by  its  side  in  the 
same  channel.  Two  people,  partners  in  business, 
joined  in  the  same  work,  marching  step  for  step  in  the 
same  ranks,  may  yet  be  entirely  distinguishable  and 
truly  separate,  because,  doing  the  same  things,  they  do 
them  from  different  motives. 

Let  me  say,  still  further,  and  finally  about  this  matter, 
that  sometimes  we  shall  -have  to  come  actually  out  of 
the  camp.  The  world  as  God  made  it  is  good ;  society 
is  ordained  by  God.  The  occupations  which  men  pur- 
sue are  of  His  appointment,  for  the  most  part.  But 
into  the  thing  that  was  good  there  have  crept  all 
manner  of  corruptions  and  abominations,  so  that  often 
it  will  be  a  Christian  duty  to  come  away  from  all 
outward  connection  with  that  which  is  incurably 
corrupt.  I  know  very  well  that  a  morality  which 
mainly  consists  of  prohibitions  is  pedantic  and  poor. 
I  know  very  well  that  a  Christianity  which  interprets 
such  a  precept  as  this  of  my  text  simply  as  meaning 
abstinence  from  certain  conventionally  selected  and 
branded  forms  of  life,  occupation,  or  amusement,  is 
but  a  very  poor  affair.  But  *Thou  shalt  not' is  very 
often  absolutely  necessary  as  a  support  to  '  Thou  shalt.' 
If  you  go  into  an  Eastern  city,  you  will  find  the  houses 
with  their  fronts  to  the  street,  having  narrow  slits  of 
windows  all  barred,  and  a  heavy  gate,  frowning  and 


V8. 13, 14]      WITHOUT  THE  CAMP  821 

ugly.  But  pass  within,  and  there  are  flower-beds  and 
fountains.  The  frowning  street  front  is  there  for  the 
defence  of  the  fountains  and  the  flower-beds  within, 
from  the  assaults  of  foes,  and  speaks  of  a  disturbed 
state  of  society,  in  which  no  flowers  can  grow  and  no 
fountains  can  bubble  and  sparkle,  unless  a  strong 
barrier  is  round  them.  And  so  '  thou  shalt  not,'  in  a 
world  like  this,  is  needful  in  order  that  'thou  shalt' 
shall  have  fair  play.  No  law  can  be  laid  down  for 
other  people.  Every  man  must  settle  this  matter  of 
abstinence  for  himself.  Things  that  you  may  do, 
perhaps  I  may  not  do;  things  that  you  may  not  do,  I 
very  likely  may.  '  A  liberal  Christianity,'  as  the  world 
calls  it,  is  often  a  very  shallow  Christianity.  '  A  sour 
Puritanical  severity,'  as  loose-living  men  call  it,  is 
very  often  plain.  Christian  morality.  An  inconsistent 
Christian  may  be  hailed  as  '  a  good  fellow,'  and  laughed 
at  behind  his  back.  Samson  made  sport  for  the 
Philistines  when  he  was  blind.  The  uncircumcised  do 
often  say  of  professing  Christians,  that  try  to  be 
like  them,  and  to  keep  step  with  them,  'What  do  these 
Hebrews  here?'  and  God  always  says  to  such,  'What 
dost  thou  here,  Elijah  ? ' 

Lastly — 

III.  Why  this  detachment  is  enforced. 

'For  here  we  have  no  continuing  city,  but  we  seek 
one  to  come.'  That  translation  does  not  give  the  full 
force  of  the  original,  for  it  suggests  the  idea  of  a  vague 
uncertainty  in  the  seeking,  whereas  what  the  writer 
means  is,  not  '  one  to  come,'  but  one  which  is  coming. 
The  Christian  object  of  seeking  is  definite,  and  it  is 
not  merely  future  but  present,  and  in  process  of  being 
realised  even  here  and  now,  and  tending  to  com- 
pletion.   Paul  uses  the  same  metaphor  of  the  city  in 

X 


322  HEBREWS  [cH.xm. 

one  of  his  letters,  'Your  citizenship  is  in  heaven.' 
He  says  that  to  the  Philippians.  Philippi  was  a  colony  ; 
that  is  to  say,  it  was  a  bit  of  Rome  put  down  in  a  foreign 
land,  with  Roman  laws,  its  citizens  enrolled  upon  the 
registers  of  the  Roman  tribes,  and  not  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  provincial  governor.  That  is  what  we 
Christians  are,  whether  we  know  it  or  not.  We  are 
here  in  an  order  to  which  we  outwardly  belong,  but 
in  the  depths  of  our  being  we  belong  to  another  order 
of  things  altogether.  Therefore  the  essentials  of  the 
Christian  life  may  be  stated  as  being  the  looking 
forward  to  the  city,  and  the  realising  of  our  affinities 
to  it  and  not  to  the  things  around  us.  In  the  measure 
in  which,  dear  brethren,  we  realise  to  what  community 
we  belong,  will  the  things  here  be  seen  to  be  fleeting 
and  alive  to  our  deepest  selves.  'Here  we  have  no 
continuing  city'  is  not  merely  the  result  of  the  tran- 
siency of  temporal  things,  and  the  brevity  of  our 
earthly  lives,  but  it  is  much  rather  the  result  of  our 
affinity  to  the  other  order  of  things  beyond  the  seas. 

Abraham  dwelt  in  tents,  because  he  'looked  for  a 
city,'  and  so  it  was  better  for  him  to  stop  on  the 
breezy  uplands,  though  the  herbage  was  scant,  than  to 
go  with  Lot  into  the  vale  of  Sodom,  though  it  looked 
like  the  garden  of  the  Lord.  In  like  manner,  the  more 
intensely  we  realise  that  we  belong  to  the  city,  the  more 
shall  we  be  willing  to  'go  forth  without  the  camp.' 
Let  these  two  thoughts  dominate  our  minds  and  shape 
our  lives ;  our  union  with  Jesus  Christ  and  our  citizen- 
ship of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.  In  the  measure  in 
which  they  do,  it  will  be  no  sacrifice  for  us  to  come  out 
of  the  transient  camp,  because  we  shall  thereby  go 
to  Him  and  come  to  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  '  which  hath  the  foundations.' 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SACRIFICE 

'By  Him  therefore  let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise  to  God  continually,  that  ie, 
the  fruit  of  our  lips  giving  tlianks  to  His  name.  16.  But  to  do  good  and  to  commu- 
nicate forget  not :  for  -with  such  sacrifices  God  is  well  pleased.'— Heb.  xiii.  15,  16. 

Much  attention  is  given  now  to  the  study  of  compar- 
ative religion.  The  beliefs  and  observances  of  the 
rudest  tribes  are  narrowly  scrutinised,  in  order  to 
discover  the  underlying  ideas.  And  many  a  practice 
which  seems  to  be  trivial,  absurd,  or  sanguinary  is 
found  to  have  its  foundation  in  some  noble  and  pro- 
found thought.  Charity  and  insight  have  both  gained 
by  the  study. 

But,  singularly  enough,  the  very  people  who  are 
so  interested  in  the  rationale  of  the  rites  of  savages 
will  turn  away  when  anybody  applies  a  similar  process 
to  the  ritual  of  the  Jews.  That  is  what  this  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  does.  It  translates  altar,  ritual 
festivals,  priests,  into  thoughts  ;  and  it  declares  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  adequate  and  abiding  em- 
bodiment of  these  thoughts.  We  are  not  dressing 
Christian  truth  in  a  foreign  garb  when  we  express  the 
substance  of  its  revelation  in  language  borrowed  from 
the  ritualistic  system  that  preceded  it.  But  we  are 
extricating  truths,  which  the  world  needs  to-day  as 
much  as  ever  it  did,  from  the  form  in  which  they 
were  embodied  for  one  stage  of  religion,  when  we 
translate  them  into  their  Christian  equivalents. 

So  the  writer  here  has  been  speaking  about  Christ 
as  by  His  death  sanctifying  His  people.  And  on 
that  great  thought,  that  He  is  what  all  priesthood 
symbolises,  and  what  all  bloody  sacrifices  reach  out 
towards,  he  builds  this  grand  exhortation  of  my  text, 

823 


324  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

which  is  at  once  a  lofty  conception  of  what  the 
Christian  life  ought  to  be,  and  a  directory  as  to  the 
method  by  which  it  may  become  so.  '  By  Him  let  us 
offer  sacrifices  continually,  for  with  such  sacrifices 
God  is  well  pleased.' 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are  here  mainly 
three  points  to  be  looked  at.  First,  the  basis  of; 
second,  the  material  of  ;  and  third,  the  divine  delight 
in,  the  sacrifices  of  the  Christian  life.  And  to  these 
three  points  I  ask  your  attention. 

I.  First,  then,  note  here  the  emphatic  way  in 
which  the  one  basis  of  Christian  sacrifice  is  laid 
down. 

Anybody  who  can  consult  the  original  will  see, 
what  indeed  is  partially  expressed  in  our  translation, 
that  the  position  of  these  two  words  '  through  '  (or  by) 
'Him'  underscores  and  puts  great  emphasis  upon 
them.  There  are  two  thoughts  which  may  be  in- 
cluded in  them  ;  the  one,  that  Jesus  is  the  Priest  by 
whose  mediation  we  come  to  God,  and  the  other 
that  He  is  the  sacrifice,  on  the  footing  of  which  we 
can  present  our  sacrifices.  It  seems  to  me,  however, 
that  it  is  the  latter  idea  principally  that  is  in  the 
writer's  mind  here.  And  on  it  I  touch  lightly  in  a 
few  words. 

Now,  let  me  recall  to  you,  as  a  world-wide  fact 
which  is  expressed  in  the  noblest  form  in  the  ancient 
Jewish  ritual,  that  there  was  a  broad  line  of  distinc- 
tion drawn  between  two  kinds  of  sacrifices,  differing 
in  their  material  and  in  their  purpose.  If  I  wanted 
to  use  mere  theological  technicalities,  which  I  do  not, 
I  should  talk  about  the  difference  between  sacrifices 
of  propitiation  and  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving.  But  let 
us  put  these  well-worn  phrases  on  one  side,  as  far  as 


vs.15,16]    THE  CHRISTIAN  SACRIFICE     325 

we  can,  for  the  moment.  Here,  then,  is  the  fact  that 
all  the  world  over,  and  in  tlie  Mosaic  ritual,  there  was 
expressed  a  double  consciousness  —  one,  that  there 
was,  somehow  or  other,  a  black  dam  between  the 
worshipper  and  his  Deity,  which  needed  to  be  sv.  opt 
away;  and  the  other,  that  when  that  barrier  was 
removed  there  could  be  an  uninterrupted  flow  of 
thanksgiving  and  of  service.  So  on  one  altar  was 
laid  a  bleeding  victim,  and  on  another  were  spread  the 
flowers  of  the  field,  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  all  things 
gracious,  lovely,  fair,  and  sweet,  as  expressions  of  the 
thankfulness  of  the  reconciled  worshippers.  One  set 
of  sacrifices  expressed  the  consciousness  of  sin  ;  the 
other  expressed  the  joyful  recognition  of  its  removal. 

Now  I  want  to  know  whether  that  world-wide  con- 
fession of  need  is  nothing  more  to  us  than  a  mere  piece 
of  interesting  reminiscence  of  a  stage  of  development 
beyond  which  we  have  advanced.  I  do  not  believe 
that  there  is  such  a  gulf  of  difference  between  the 
lowest  savage  and  the  most  cultivated  nineteenth- 
century  Englishman,  that  the  fundamental  needs  of 
the  one,  in  spirit,  are  not  almost  as  identical  as  are  the 
fundamental  needs  of  the  one  and  the  other  in  regard 
to  bodily  wants.  And  sure  I  am  that,  if  the  voice  of 
humanity  has  declared  all  the  world  over,  as  it  has 
declared,  that  it  is  conscious  of  a  cloud  that  has  come 
between  it  and  the  awful  Power  above,  and  that  it 
seeks  by  sacrifice  the  removal  of  the  cloud,  the  prob- 
ability is  that  that  need  is  your  need  and  mine ;  and 
that  the  remedy  which  humanity  has  divined  as 
necessary  has  some  aflinity  with  the  remedy  which 
God  has  revealed  as  provided. 

I  am  not  going  to  attempt  theorising  about  the 
manner  in  which  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ 


326  HEBREWS  [ch.xiii. 

sweep  away  the  barrier  between  us  and  God,  and  deal 
with  the  consciousness  of  transgression,  which  lies 
coiled  and  dormant,  but  always  ready  to  wake  and 
sting,  in  human  hearts.  But  I  do  venture  to  appeal  to 
each  man's  and  woman's  own  consciousness,  and  to 
ask.  Is  there  not  something  in  us  which  recognises  the 
necessity  that  the  sin  which  stands  between  God  and 
man  shall  be  swept  away  ?  Is  there  not  something  in 
us  which  recognises  the  blessedness  of  the  message, 
•The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin'? 
Oh,  brethren  !  do  not  fancy  that  it  is  a  mere  theological 
doctrine  of  an  atonement  that  is  in  question.  It  is  the 
possibility  of  loving  access  to  God,  as  made  possible 
through  Jesus,  and  through  Him  alone,  that  I  want 
to  press  upon  your  hearts.  'Through  Him  let  us 
offer.' 

II.  Secondly,  notice  the  light  which  our  text  throws 
upon  the  material  or  contents  of  the  Christian  sacrifice. 

I  need  not  dwell  at  all,  I  suppose,  upon  the  expla- 
nation of  the  words,  which  are  plain  enough.  The 
writer  seems  to  me  to  divide  the  sacrifice  of  praise, 
which  he  prescribes,  into  two  parts,  the  praise  of  the 
lip  and  the  praise  of  the  life. 

But  before  I  deal  with  this  twofold  distribution  of 
the  thought,  let  me  fix  upon  the  main  general  idea  that 
is  expressed  here,  and  that  is  that  the  highest  notion, 
the  noblest  and  purest  of  what  a  Christian  life  is,  is 
that  it  is  one  long  sacrifice.  Have  we  risen  to  the 
height  of  that  conception?  I  do  not  say.  Have  we 
attained  to  the  fulfilment  of  it?  The  answer  to  the 
latter  question  one  knows  only  too  well.  But  has  it 
ever  dawned  upon  us  that  the  true  ideal  of  the 
Christian  life  which  we  profess  to  be  living  is  this — a 
sacrifice  ? 


vs.  15, 16]  THE  CHRISTIAN  SACRIFICE      327 

Now,  that  thought  involves  two  things.  One  is  the 
continuous  surrender  of  self,  and  that  means  the 
absolute  suppression  of  our  own  wills  ;  the  bridling  of 
our  own  inclinations  and  fancies ;  the  ceasing  obsti- 
nately to  adhere  to  our  own  purposes  and  conceptions 
of  what  is  good ;  the  recognition  that  there  is  a  higher 
will  above  us,  ruling  and  guiding,  to  which  we  are  to 
submit.  Sacrifice  means  nothing  if  it  does  not  mean 
surrender ;  and  surrender  is  nothing  if  it  is  not  the 
surrender  of  the  will.  It  was  a  great  deal  easier  for 
Abraham  to  take  the  knife  in  his  hand,  and  climb  the 
hill  with  the  fixed  intention  of  thrusting  it  into  his 
son's  heart,  than  it  is  for  us  to  take  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit  in  our  hands  and  slay  our  own  wills,  and  I  am 
here  to  say  that  unless  we  do  we  have  very  little  right 
to  call  ourselves  Christians. 

But,  then,  surrender  is  only  half  the  conception  of 
the  sacrifice  which  has  to  be  accomplished  in  our 
whole  days  and  selves.  Surrender  to  God  is  the  full 
meaning  of  sacrifice.  And  that  implies  the  distinct 
reference  of  all  that  I  am,  and  all  that  I  do,  to  Him, 
as  not  only  commanding,  but  as  being  the  aim  and 
end  of  my  life.  We  are  to  labour  on  as  at  His  com- 
mand. You  in  your  counting-houses,  and  mills,  and 
shops,  and  homes ;  and  we  students  in  our  studies,  and 
laboratories,  and  lecture-rooms,  are  to  link  everything 
with  Him,  with  His  will,  and  Avith  the  thought  of  Him. 
What  vice  could  live  in  that  light  ?  What  meanness 
would  not  be  struck  dead  if  we  were  connected  with 
that  great  reservoir  of  electric  force  ?  What  slothf ul- 
ness  would  not  be  spurred  into  unhastiug  and  unrest- 
ing zeal  if  all  our  work  were  referred  to  God  ?  Unless 
our  lives  be  thus  sacrifice,  in  the  full  sense  of  conscious 
surrender  to  Him,  we  have  yet  to  learn  what  is  the 


328  HEBREWS  [ch.  xm. 

moaning  and  tho  purpose  of  the  propitiatory  sacrifice 
on  which  we  say  that  our  livos  are  built. 

I  need  not,  I  suppose,  remind  you  at  any  length  of 
how  our  text  draws  broad  and  deep  the  distinction 
between  the  nature  and  the  scope  of  the  fundamental 
offering  made  by  Christ,  and  the  offerings  made  by  us. 
The  one  takes  away  the  separating  barrier;  the  other 
is  the  flow  of  the  stream  where  the  barrier  had  stood. 
The  one  is  the  melting  away  of  the  cloud  that  hid  the 
sun ;  the  other  is  the  flashing  of  the  mirror  of  my 
heart  when  the  sun  shines  upon  it.  Our  sacrifice  is 
thanksgiving.  Then  there  will  be  no  reluctance  be- 
cause duty  is  heavy.  There  will  be  no  grudging 
because  requirements  are  great.  There  will  be  no 
avoiding  of  the  obligations  of  the  Christian  life,  and 
rendering  as  small  a  percentage  by  way  of  dividend  as 
the  Creditor  up  in  the  heavens  will  accept.  If  the 
offering  is  a  thank-offering,  then  it  will  be  given  gladly. 
The  grateful  heart  does  not  hold  the  scales  like  a 
scrupulous  retail  dealer  afraid  of  putting  the  thou- 
sandth part  of  an  ounce  more  in  than  can  be  avoided. 

'  Give  all  thou  canst,  high  heaven  rejects  the  lore 
Of  nicely  calculated  less  or  more.' 

Power  is  the  measure  of  duty,  and  they  whose  offering 
is  the  expression  of  their  thankfulness  will  heap  incense 
upon  the  brazier,  and  cover  the  altar  with  flowers. 

Ah,  brethren,  what  a  blessed  life  it  would  be  for  us, 
if  indeed  all  the  painfulness  and  harshness  of  duty, 
with  all  the  efforts  of  constraint  and  restriction  and 
stimulus  which  it  so  often  requires,  were  transmuted 
into  that  glad  expression  of  infinite  obligation  for  the 
great  sacrifice  on  which  our  life  and  hopes  rest ! 

I  do  not  purpose  to  say  much  about  the  two  classes 


vs.  15, 16]  THE  CHRISTIAN  SACRIFICE      829 

of  sacrifice  into  which  our  writer  divides  the  whole. 
Words  come  first,  work  follows.  That  order  may  seem 
strange,  because  we  are  accustomed  to  think  more  of 
work  than  words.  But  the  Bible  has  a  solemn  rever- 
ence for  man's  utterances  of  speech,  and  many  a  pro- 
test against  '  God's  great  gift  of  speech  abused.'  And 
the  text  rightly  supposes  that  if  there  is  in  us  any 
deep,  real,  abiding,  life-shaping  thankfulness  for  the 
gift  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  impossible  that  our  tongues 
should  cleave  to  the  roofs  of  our  mouths,  and  that  we 
should  be  contented  to  live  in  silence.  Loving  hearts 
must  speak.  What  would  you  think  of  a  husband 
who  never  felt  any  impulse  to  tell  his  wife  that  she 
was  dear  to  him;  or  a  mother  who  never  found  it 
needful  to  unpack  her  heart  of  its  tenderness,  even  in 
perhaps  inarticulate  croonings  over  the  little  child 
that  she  pressed  to  her  heart  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  a 
dumb  Christian,  a  man  who  is  thankful  for  Christ's 
sacrifice  and  never  feels  the  need  to  say  so,  is  as  great 
an  anomaly  as  either  of  these  I  have  described. 

Brethren  !  the  conventionalities  of  our  modern  life, 
the  proper  reticence  about  personal  experience,  the 
reverence  due  to  sacred  subjects,  all  these  do  prescribe 
caution  and  tact  and  many  another  thing,  in  limiting 
the  evangelistic  side  of  our  speech ;  but  is  there  any 
such  limitation  needful  for  the  eucharistic,  the  thanks- 
giving side  of  our  speech  ?  Surely  not.  In  some 
monasteries  and  nunneries  there  used  to  be  a  pro- 
vision made  that  at  every  hour  of  the  four  and  twenty, 
and  at  every  moment  of  every  hour,  there  should  be 
one  kneeling  figure  before  the  altar,  repeating  the 
psalter,  so  that  night  and  day  prayer  and  praise  went 
up.  It  was  a  beautiful  idea,  beautiful  as  long  as  it 
was  an  idea,  and,  like  a  great  many  other  beautiful 


830  HEBREWS  [ch.  xul 

ideas,  made  vulgar  and  sometimes  ludicrous  when  it 
was  put  into  realisation.  But  it  is  the  symbol  of  what 
we  should  be,  with  hearts  ever  occupied  with  Ilim, 
and  the  voice  of  praise  rising  unintermittently  from 
our  hearts  singing  a  quiet  tune,  all  the  day  and  night 
long,  to  Him  who  has  loved  us  and  given  Himself 
for  us. 

And  then  the  other  side  of  this  conception  of  sacri- 
fice that  my  text  puts  forth  is  that  of  beneficence 
amongst  men,  in  the  general  form  of  doing  good,  and 
in  the  specific  form  of  giving  money.  Two  aspects 
of  this  combination  of  word  and  work  may  be  sug- 
gested. It  has  a  message  for  us  professing  Christians. 
All  that  the  world  says  about  the  uselessness  of 
singing  psalms,  and  praying  prayers,  while  neglecting 
the  miserable  and  the  weak,  is  said  far  more  emphati- 
cally in  the  Bible,  and  ought  to  be  laid  to  heart,  not 
because  sneering,  godless  people  say  it,  but  because 
God  Himself  says  it.  It  is  vain  to  pray  unless  you 
work.  It  is  sin  to  work  for  yourselves  unless  you 
own  the  bond  of  sympathy  with  all  mankind,  and 
live  'to  do  good  and  to  communicate.'  That  is  a 
message  for  others  than  Christians.  There  is  no  real 
foundation  for  a  broad  philanthropy  except  a  deep 
devotion  to  God.  The  service  of  man  is  never  so  well 
secured  as  when  it  is  the  corollary  and  second  form 
of  the  service  of  God. 

III.  And  so,  lastly — and  only  a  word — note  the 
divine  delight  in  such  sacrifice. 

Ah !  that  is  a  wonderful  thought,  '  With  such  sacri- 
fices God  is  well  pleased.'  Now  I  take  it  that  that 
'  such  *  covers  both  the  points  on  which  I  have  been 
dwelling,  and  that  the  sacrifices  which  please  Him 
are,  first,  those  which  are  offered  on  the  basis  and 


vs  15, 16]  THE  CHRISTIAN  SACRIFICE      831 

footing  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  and,  second,  those  in  which 
word  and  work  accord  well,  and  make  one  music. 
•  With  such  sacrifices  God  is  well  pleased.' 

We  are  sometimes  too  much  afraid  of  believing  that 
there  is  in  the  divine  heart  anything  corresponding 
to  our  delight  in  gifts  that  mean  love,  because  we  are 
so  penetrated  with  the  imperfection  of  all  that  we  can 
do  and  give ;  and  sometimes  because  we  are  influenced 
by  grand  philosophic  ideas  of  the  divine  nature,  so 
that  we  think  it  degrading  to  Him  to  conceive  of 
anything  corresponding  to  our  delight  passing  across 
it.  But  the  Bible  is  wiser  and  more  reverent  than 
that,  and  it  tells  us  that,  however  stained  and  im- 
perfect our  gifts,  and  however  a  man  might  reject 
them  with  scorn,  God  will  take  them  if  they  are '  such' 
—that  is,  offered  through  Jesus  Christ.  I  dare  say 
there  are  many  parents  who  have  laid  away  amongst 
their  treasures  some  utterly  useless  thing  that  one 
of  their  little  children  once  gave  them.  No  good 
in  it  at  all!  No;  but  it  meant  love.  And,  de- 
pend upon  it,  *if  ye,  being  evil,  know  how  to  take 
good  gifts '—though  they  are  useless— *  from  your 
children,  much  more  will  your  heavenly  Father 
accept'  your  stained  sacrifices  if  they  come  through 
Christ. 

Dear  brethren,  my  text  preaches  to  us  what  is  the 
true  sacrifice  of  the  true  priesthood  in  the  Christian 
Church.  There  is  one  Priest  who  stands  alone,  offering 
the  one  sacrifice  that  has  no  parallel  nor  second.  No 
other  shares  in  His  priesthood  of  expiation  and  inter- 
cession. But  around,  and  deriving  their  priestly 
character  from  Him,  and  made  capable  of  rendering 
acceptable  sacrifices  through  Him,  stand  the  whole 
company    of    Christian    people.      And    besides    these 


332  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiil 

there  are  no  priesthoods  and  no  sacrifices  in  the 
Christian  vocabulary  or  in  the  Christian  Church. 
Would  that  a  generation  that  seems  to  be  reeling 
backwards  to  the  beggarly  elements  of  an  official 
priesthood,  with  all  its  corruptions  and  degradations 
of  the  Christian  community,  would  learn  the  lesson  of 
my  text !  *  Ye  ' — all  of  you,  and  not  any  selected  num- 
ber amongst  you — '  ye,  all  of  you  are  a  royal  jDriest- 
hood.'  There  are  only  two  sacrifices  in  the  Christian 
Church :  the  one  offered  once  for  all  on  Calvary,  by 
the  High  Priest  Himself ;  the  sacrifice  of  ourselves,  by 
ourselves,  thank-offerings  for  Christ  and  His  name, 
which  are  the  true  Eucharist. 


GREAT  HOPES  A  GREAT  DUTY 

'The  God  of  peace,  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus,  that 
great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant.'— 
Heb.  xiii.  20. 

A  GREAT  building  needs  a  deep  foundation ;  a  leaping 
fountain  needs  a  full  spring.  A  very  large  and  lofty 
prayer  follows  the  words  of  my  text,  and  these  are 
the  foundations  on  which  it  rests,  the  abundant 
source  from  which  it  soars  heavenward.  The  writer 
asks  for  his  readers  nothing  less  than  a  complete,  all- 
round,  and  thorough-going  conformity  to  the  will  of 
God;  and  that  should  be  our  deepest  desire  and  our 
conscious  aim,  that  God  may  see  His  own  image  in  us, 
for  nothing  less  can  be  'well-pleasing  in  His  sight.' 
But  does  not  such  a  dream  of  what  we  may  be  seem 
far  too  audacious,  when  we  pursue  the  stained  volume 
of  our  own  lives,  and  remember  what  we  are?  Should 
we  not  be  content  with  very  much  more  modest  hopes 
for  ourselves,  and  with  a  vary  partial  attainment  of 
them  ?    Yes,  if  we  look  at  ourselves ;  but  to  look  at 


V.  20]  GREAT  HOPES  A  GREAT  DUTY    333 

ourselves  is  not  the  way  to  pray,  or  the  way  to  hope, 
or  the  way  to  grow,  or  the  way  to  dare.  The  logic  of 
Christian  petitions  and  Christian  expectations  starts 
with  God  as  the  premiss,  and  thence  argues  the  possi- 
bility of  the  impossible.  It  was  because  of  all  this 
great  accumulation  of  truths,  piled  up  in  my  text,  that 
the  writer  found  it  in  his  heart  to  ask  such  great 
things  for  the  humble  people  to  whom  he  was  writing, 
although  he  well  knew  that  they  were  far  from 
perfect,  and  were  even  in  danger  of  making  shipwreck 
of  the  faith  altogether.  My  purpose  now  is  to  let 
him  lead  us  along  the  great  array  of  reasons  for  his 
great  prayer,  that  we  too  may  learn  to  desire  and  to 
expect,  and  to  work  for  nothing  short  of  this  aim — the 
entire  purging  of  ourselves  from  all  evil  and  sin  and 
the  complete  assimilation  to  our  Lord.  There  are 
three  points  here:  the  warrant  for  our  highest  expec- 
tations in  the  name  of  God ;  the  warrant  for  our  highest 
expectations  in  the  risen  Shepherd ;  the  warrant  for 
our  highest  expectations  in  the  everlasting  covenant. 

I.  The  warrant  for  our  highest  expectations  in  the 
name  of  God. 

'The  God  of  peace' — the  name  comes  like  a  benedic- 
tion into  our  restless  lives  and  distracted  hearts,  and 
carries  us  away  up  into  lofty  regions,  above  the  muta- 
tions of  circumstances  and  the  perturbations  and 
agitations  of  our  earthly  life.  No  doubt,  there  may  be 
some  allusion  here  to  the  special  circumstances  of  the 
recipients  of  this  letter,  for  it  is  clear  from  the  rest  of 
the  Epistle  that  they  had  much  need  for  the  peace  of 
God  to  calm  their  agitations  in  the  prospect  of  the 
collapse  of  the  venerable  system  in  which  they  had 
lived  so  long.  It  is  obvious  also  that  there  were 
divisions  of  opinion  amongst  themselves,  so  that  the 


334  HEBREWS  [en.  xiii. 

invocation  of  the  God  of  peace  may  have  had  a  special 
sanctity  and  sweetness  to  them,  considering  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  were  placed.  But  the 
designation  has  a  bearing  not  so  much  on  the  condi- 
tion of  those  to  whom  the  words  are  spoken,  as  upon 
the  substance  of  the  grand  prayer  that  follows  it.  It 
is  because  He  is  known  to  us  as  being  'the  God  of 
peace '  that  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  He  will  *  make 
us  perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do  His  will,  working 
in  us  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight.' 

And  how  does  that  great  name,  sweet  and  strong  as 
it  is,  bear  with  it  the  weight  of  such  an  inference  as 
that?  Plainly  enough  because  it  speaks,  first  of  all, 
of  that  which  I  may  call  an  immanent  characteristic  of 
the  divine  nature.  He  is  the  tranquil  God,  dwelling 
above  all  disturbance  which  comes  from  variableness 
and  all  'the  shadows  cast  by  turning';  dwelling  above 
all  possibilities  of  irritation  or  agitation.  And  yet  that 
great  ocean  is  not  stagnant,  but  through  all  its  depths 
flow  currents  of  love,  and  in  all  its  repose  is  inteusest 
energy.  The  highest  activity  coincides  with  the  sup- 
remest  rest.  The  wheel  revolves  so  swiftly  that  it 
stands  as  if  motionless. 

Then,  just  because  of  that  profound  divine  repose, 
we  may  expect  Him,  by  His  very  nature,  to  impart 
His  own  peace  to  the  soul  that  seeks  Him.  Of  course, 
it  can  be  but  the  faintest  shadow  of  that  divine  indis- 
turbance  which  can  ever  fall,  like  a  dove's  wing,  upon 
our  restless  lives.  But  still  in  the  tranquillity  of  a 
quiet  heart,  in  the  harmonies  of  a  spirit  all  concen- 
trated on  one  purpose,  in  the  independence  of  externals 
possible  to  a  man  who  grasps  God,  in  the  victory  over 
change  which  is  granted  to  them  who  have  pierced 
through  the  fleeting  clouds  and  have  their  home  in  the 


V  20]   GKE AT  HOPES  A  GREAT  DUTY    335 

cnlni  blue  beyond,  there  m«ay  be  a  quiet  of  heart  which 
does  not  altogether  put  to  shame  that  wondrous 
promise :  '  My  peace  I  give  unto  you.'  It  is  possible 
that  they  '  which  have  believed'  should  'enter  into  the 
rest '  of  God. 

But  if  the  impartation  of  some  faint  but  real  echo  of 
His  own  great  repose  is  the  delight  of  the  divine  heart, 
how  can  it  be  done  ?  There  is  only  one  way  by  which 
a  man  can  be  made  peaceful,  and  that  is  by  his  being 
made  good.  Nothing  else  secures  the  true  tranquillity 
of  a  human  spirit  without  its  conformity  to  the  divine 
will.  It  is  submission  to  the  divine  commandments 
and  appointments,  it  is  the  casting-off  of  self  with  all 
its  agitations  and  troubles,  that  secures  our  entering 
into  rest.  What  a  man  needs  for  peace  is,  that  his 
relations  with  God  should  be  set  right,  that  his  own 
nature  should  be  drawn  into  one  and  harmonised 
with  itself,  and  that  his  relations  with  men  should  also 
be  rectified. 

For  the  first  of  these,  we  know  that  it  is  '  the  Christ 
that  died,*  who  is  the  means  by  which  the  alienation 
and  enmity  of  heart  between  us  and  God  can  be  swept 
away.  For  the  second  of  them,  we  know  that  the  only 
way  by  which  this  anarchic  commonwealth  within  can 
be  brought  into  harmony  and  order,  and  its  elements 
prevented  from  drawing  apart  from  one  another,  is  that 
the  whole  man  shall  be  bowed  before  God  in  submis- 
sion to  His  will.  The  heart  is  like  some  stormy  sea, 
tossed  and  running  mountains  high,  and  there  is  only 
one  voice  that  can  say  to  it,  '  Peace  :  be  still,'  and  that 
is  the  voice  of  God  in  Christ.  There  is  only  one  jiower 
that,  like  the  white  moon  in  the  nightly  sky,  can  draw 
the  heaped  waters  round  the  whole  world  after  itself, 
and  that  is  the  power  of  Christ  in  His  Cross  and  Spirit, 


836  HEBREWS  [en.  xm. 

which  brings  the  disobedient  heart  into  submission, 
and  unites  the  discordant  powers  in  the  liberty  of 
a  common  service:  so, brethren,  if  we  are  ever  to  have 
quiet  hearts,  they  must  come,  not  from  favourable 
circumstances,  nor  from  anything  external.  They  can 
only  come  from  the  prayer  being  answered,  '  Unite  my 
heart  to  fear  Thy  name,'  and  then  our  inner  lives  will 
no  longer  be  torn  by  contending  passions — conscience 
pulling  this  way  and  desire  that;  a  great  voice  saying 
within,  'you  ought!'  and  an  insistent  voice  answering, 
'  I  will  not ' ;  but  all  within  will  be  at  one,  and  then 
there  will  be  peace.  '  The  God  of  peace  sanctify  you 
wholly,'  say=  one  of  the  apostles,  bringing  out  in  the 
expression  the  same  thought,  that  inasmuch  as  He 
who  Himself  is  supreme  repose  must  be  infinitely 
desirous  that  we.  His  children,  should  share  in  His 
rest.  He  will,  as  the  only  way  by  which  that  rest  can 
ever  be  attained,  sanctify  us  wholly.  When — and  not 
till,  and  as  soon  as — we  are  thus  made  holy  are  we 
made  at  rest. 

Nor  let  us  forget  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  divine 
peace,  which  is  '  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  '  by  the 
love  of  God,  does  itself  largely  contribute  to  perfect 
the  holiness  of  a  Christian  soul.  We  read  that  'the 
God  of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet 
shortly,'  and  also  that  '  the  peace  of  God  will  guard 
your  hearts  and  minds,'  and  again  that  the  peace  of 
God  will  sit  as  umpire  in  our  hearts,  detecting  evil, 
judging  actions,  awarding  the  prizes.  For,  indeed, 
when  that  peace  lies  like  a  summer  morning's  light 
upon  our  quiet  hearts,  there  will  be  little  in  evil  that 
will  so  attract  us  as  to  make  us  think  it  worth  our 
while  to  break  the  blessed  and  charmed  silence  for  the 
sake   of  any  earthly  influences  or    joys.    They  that 


V.  20]  GREAT  HOPES  A  GREAT  DUTY     337 

dwell  in  the  peace  of  God  have  little  temptation  to 
buy  trouble,  remorse  perhaps,  or  agitation,  by  ventur- 
ing out  into  the  forbidden  ground.  So,  brethren,  the 
great  name  of  the  God  of  peace  is  itself  a  promise,  and 
entitles  us  to  expect  t!io  completeness  of  character 
which  alone  brings  peace. 

Then,  further,  we  have  here 

II.  The  warrant  for  our  highest  expectations  in  the 
risen  Shepherd. 

' The  God  of  peace  who  brought  again' — or,  perhaps, 
brought  up — 'from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus,  that 
great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep.'  Now,  it  is  remarkable 
that  this  is  the  only  reference  in  this  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  to  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  book 
is  full  of  references  to  that  which  presupposes  the 
Resurrection,  namely,  the  ascended  life  of  Jesus  as  the 
great  High  Priest  within  the  veil,  and  the  fact  that 
only  this  once  is  the  act  of  resurrection  referred  to, 
confirms  the  idea,  that  in  the  New  Testament  there  is 
no  division  of  thought  between  the  point  at  which  the 
line  begins  and  the  line  itself,  that  the  Ascension  is 
but  the  prolongation  of  the  Resurrection,  and  the 
Resurrection  is  but  the  beginning  of  the  Ascension. 
But  here  the  act,  rather  than  the  state  into  which  it 
led,  is  dwelt  upon  as  being  more  appropriate  to  the 
purpose  in  hand. 

Then  we  may  notice  further,  that  in  that  phrase, 
'  the  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,'  there  is  a  quotation 
from  one  of  the  prophets,  where  the  words  refer  to 
Moses  bringing  up  the  people  from  the  Red  Sea.  The 
writer  of  the  Epistle  adds  to  Isaiah's  phrase  one 
significant  word,  and  speaks  of  '  that  great  Shepherd,' 
to  remind  us  of  the  comparison  which  he  had  been 

Y 


338  HEBREWS  [ch.  xm. 

running  in  an  earlier  part  of  the  letter,  between  the 
leader  of  Israel  and  Christ. 

So,  then,  we  have  here  brought  before  us  Jesus  who 
is  risen  and  ascended,  as  the  great  Shepherd  of  the 
sheep.  Looking  to  Him,  v>];at  are  we  heartened  to 
believe  are  the  possibilities  and  the  divine  purposes 
for  each  of  those  that  put  their  trust  in  Ilira  ?  Gazing 
in  thought  for  a  moment  on  that  Lord  risen  from  the 
grave,  with  the  old  love  in  His  heart,  and  the  old 
greetings  upon  His  lips,  we  see  there,  of  course,  as 
everybody  knows,  the  demonstration  of  the  persistence 
of  a  human  life  through  death,  like  some  stream  of 
fresh  water  holding  on  its  course  through  a  salt  and 
stagnant  sea,  or  plunging  underground  for  a  short 
space,  to  come  up  again  flashing  into  the  sunshine. 
But  we  see  more  than  that.  We  see  the  measure  of 
the  power,  as  the  Apostle  has  it,  that  works  in  us, 
'according  to  the  energy  of  the  might  of  the  power 
which  He  wrought  in  Christ,  when  He  raised  Him 
from  the  dead.'  As  we  gaze,  we  see  what  may  be  called 
a  type,  but  what  is  a  great  deal  more  than  a  type,  of 
the  possibilities  of  the  risen  life,  as  it  may  be  lived 
even  here  and  now,  by  every  poor  and  humble  soul 
that  puts  its  trust  in  Him.  The  Resurrection  of 
Jesus  gives  us  the  measure  of  the  power  that  worketh 
in  us. 

But  more  than  that,  the  risen  Shepherd  has  risen  as 
Shepherd,  for  the  very  purpose  of  imparting,  to  every 
soul  that  trusts  in  Him,  His  own  life.  And  unless  we 
grasp  that  truth,  we  shall  not  understand  the  place  of 
the  Resurrection  in  the  Christian  scheme,  nor  the 
ground  on  which  the  loftiest  anticipations  are  not 
audacious  for  the  poorest  soul,  and  on  which  anything 
beneath  the  loftiest  is,  for  the  poorest,  beneath  what 


V.  20]  GREAT  HOPES  A  GREAT  DUTY  839 

it  might  and  should  aspire  to.  Whon  the  alabaster 
box  was  broken,  the  ointment  was  poured  forth  and 
the  house  was  filled  with  the  odour.  The  risen  Christ 
imparts  His  life  to  His  people.  And  nothing  short  of 
their  entire  perfecting  in  all  which  is  within  the 
possibilities  of  human  beauty  and  nobleness  and 
purity,  will  be  the  adequate  issue  of  that  great  death 
and  triumphant  Resurrection,  and  of  the  mighty, 
quickening  power  of  a  new  life,  which  He  thereby 
breathed  into  the  dying  world.  On  His  Cross,  and 
from  His  Tomb,  and  from  His  Throne,  He  has  set 
agoing  processes  which  never  can  reach  their  goal — 
and,  blessed  be  God  !  never  will  stop  their  beneficent 
working — until  every  soul  of  man,  however  stained 
and  evil,  that  puts  the  humblest  trust  in  Him,  and 
lives  after  His  commandment,  is  become  radiant  with 
beauty,  complete  in  holiness,  victorious  over  self  and 
sin,  and  is  set  for  ever  more  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
Every  anticipation  that  falls  short  of  that,  and  all 
effort  that  lags  behind  that  anticipation,  is  an  insult 
to  the  Christ,  and  a  trampling  under  foot  of  the  blood 
of  '  the  covenant  wherewith  ye  are  sanctified.' 

So,  brother,  open  your  mouth  wide,  and  it  will  be 
filled.  Expect  great  things ;  believe  that  what  Jesus 
Christ  came  into  the  world  and  died  to  do,  what  Jesus 
Christ  left  the  world  and  lives  to  carry  on,  will  be  done 
in  you,  and  that  you  too  will  be  made  complete  in 
Him.  For  the  Shepherd  leads  and  the  sheep  follow — 
here  afar  off,  often  straying,  and  getting  lost  or  torn 
by  the  brambles,  and  worried  by  the  wolves.  But 
He  leads  and  they  do  follow,  and  the  time  comes 
when  'they  shall  follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever'  He 
goeth,'  and  be  close  behind  Him  in  all  the  good 
pastures  of  the  mountains  of  Israel.     '  We  see  not  yet 


340  HEBREWS  [ch.  xiii. 

all  things  put  under  Him,'  but  we  see  Jesus  and  that 
is  enough. 

III.  The  warrant  for  our  highest  expectations  in  the 
everlasting  covenant. 

Space  will  not  allow  of  my  entering  upon  the 
question  as  to  the  precise  relation  of  these  final  words 
to  the  rest  of  the  verse,  but  their  relation  to  the  great 
purpose  of  the  whole  verse  is  j)lain  enough.  It  has 
come  to  be  very  unfashionable  nowadays  to  talk 
about  the  covenant.  People  think  that  it  is  archaic, 
technically  theological,  far  away  from  daily  life,  and 
so  on  and  so  on.  I  believe  that  Christian  people 
would  be  a  great  deal  stronger,  if  there  were  a  more 
prominent  place  given  in  Christian  meditations  to  the 
great  idea  that  underlies  that  metaphor.  And  it  is 
just  this,  that  God  is  under  obligations,  taken  on  Him 
by  Himself,  to  fulfil  to  a  poor,  trusting  soul  the  great 
promises  to  which  that  soul  has  been  drawn  to  cleave. 
He  has,  if  I  might  use  such  a  metaphor,  like  eome 
monarch,  given  a  constitution  to  His  people.  He  has 
not  left  us  to  grope  as  to  what  His  mind  and  purpose 
may  be.  Across  the  infinite  ocean  of  possibilities.  He 
has  marked  out  on  the  chart,  so  to  speak,  the  line 
which  He  will  pursue.  We  have  His  word,  and  His 
word  is  this :  '  After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will 
make  a  new  covenant.  I  will  write  My  law  on  their 
inward  parts.  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be 
My  people.'  So  the  definite,  distinct  promise,  in  black 
and  white,  so  to  speak,  to  every  man  and  woman  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,  is  *  Come  into  the  bonds  of  the 
covenant,  by  trusting  Me,  and  you  will  get  all  that  I 
have  promised.' 

And  that  covenant  is,  as  my  text  says,  sealed  by 
•the    blood.'    Which,    being    turned    into    less    meta- 


V.20]  GREAT  HOPES  A  GREAT  DUTY    341 

phorical  English,  is  just  this,  that  God's  infinite  pro- 
pension  of  beneficence  towards  each  of  us,  and  desire  to 
clothe  us  in  garments  of  radiant  purity,  are,  by  Christ's 
death,  guaranteed  as  extending  to,  and  working  their 
effects  on,  every  soul  that  trusts  Him.  What  does  that 
death  mean  if  it  does  not  mean  that?  Why  should  He 
have  died  on  the  Cross,  unless  it  were  to  take  away  sin  ? 

But  the  blood  of  the  covenant  does  not  mean  only 
the  death  by  which  the  covenant  is  ratified.  We  shall 
much  misapprehend  and  narrow  New  Testament 
teaching,  if  we  suppose  that.  The  '  blood  is  the  life.' 
There  is  further  suggested,  then,  by  the  expression, 
that  the  vital  energy,  with  which  Jesus  Christ  came 
from  the  dead  as  the  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  is  the 
power  by  which  God  makes  us  '  perfect  in  every  good 
work  to  do  His  will,  working  in  us  that  which  is  well- 
pleasing  in  His  sight.' 

So,  two  practical  counsels  may  close  my  words.  See 
that  you  aspire  as  high  as  God's  purpose  concerning 
you,  and  do  not  be  content  with  anything  short  of 
the,  at  least,  incipient  and  progressive  accomplishment 
in  your  characters  and  lives,  of  that  great  prayer. 
Again,  see  that  you  use  the  forces  which,  by  the  Cross 
and  the  Resurrection  and  the  Ascension,  are  set  in 
motion  to  make  that  wondrous  possibility  a  matter-of- 
fact  reality  for  each  of  us ;  and  whoever  you  are,  and 
whatever  you  have  been,  be  sure  of  this,  that  He  can 
lift  you  from  the  mud  and  cleanse  you  from  its  stains, 
and  set  you  at  His  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly 
places.  For  the  name,  and  the  risen  Shepherd,  and  the 
blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  make  a  threefold 
cord,  not  to  be  quickly  broken,  and  able  to  bear  the 
weight  of  the  loftiest  hopes  and  firmest  confidence  that 
we  can  hang  upon  it. 


THE  GREAT  PRAYER  BASED  ON  GREAT 
PLEAS 

Make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do  Hia  will,  working  in  you  that  which 
is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight,  through  Jesus  Christ.'— Heb.  xiii.  21. 

Massive  foundations  prognosticate  a  great  building. 
We  do  not  dig  deep,  and  lay  large  blocks,  in  order  to 
rear  some  flimsy  structure.  We  have  seen,  in  a  previous 
sermon,  how  the  words  preceding  my  text  bring  out 
certain  great  aspects  of  the  divine  character  and  work, 
and  now  we  have  to  turn  to  the  great  prayer  which  is 
based  upon  these.  It  is  a  prophecy  as  well  as  a  prayer ; 
for  such  a  contemplation  of  what  God  is  and  does 
makes  certain  the  fulfilment  of  the  desires  which  the 
contemplation  excites.  Small  petitions  to  a  great  God 
are  insults.  He  is  *the  God  of  peace,'  therefore  we 
may  ask  Him  to  '  make  us  perfect,'  and  be  sure  that 
He  will.  He  is  the  God  '  that  brought  again  from  the 
dead  the  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,'  therefore  we 
may  ask  Him  and  be  sure.  He  is  the  God  who  has 
sealed  an  'everlasting  covenant' with  us  by  the  blood 
of  the  Shepherd,  therefore  we  may  ask  Him  and  be 
sure. 

This  prayer  is  the  parting  highest  wish  of  the  writer 
for  his  friends.  Do  our  desires  for  ourselves,  and  for 
those  whom  we  would  seek  to  bless,  run  in  the  same 
mould  ?  How  strange  it  is  that  Christian  people,  who 
believe  in  the  God  whom  the  previous  verse  sets  before 
us,  so  imperfectly  and  languidly  cherish  the  confidence 
which  inspires  desires,  for  themselves  and  their 
brethren,  such  as  those  of  our  text  this  morning! 
Let  us  look  at  these  great  petitions,  then,  in  the  light 
of  the  great  name  on  which  they  are  based. 

U2 


T.21]  THE  GREAT  PRAYER  843 

I.  And,  first,  I  ask  you  to  consider  the  prayer  which 
the  name  excites. 

'Make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work.'  Now,  I 
need  only  observe  here,  in  regard  to  the  language  of 
the  petition,  that  the  word  translated  'make  perfect' 
is  not  the  ordinary  one  employed  for  that  idea,  but  a 
somewhat  remarkable  one,  with  a  very  rich  and  preg- 
nant variety  of  significance.  For  instance,  it  is  em- 
ployed to  describe  the  action  of  the  fisherman  apostles 
in  mending  their  nets.  It  is  employed  to  describe  the 
divine  action  which  'by  faith  we  understand'  when  He 
^made  the  worlds.'  It  is  employed  to  describe  the 
action  which  the  Apostle  commends  to  one  of  his 
churches  when  he  bids  them  ^restore  such  an  one  in 
the  spirit  of  meekness.'  It  is  the  condition  which  he 
described  when  he  desired  another  of  his  churches  to 
be  'perfectly  joined  together,  in  one  mind  and  in  one 
judgment.'  It  is  still  again  the  expression  employed 
when  he  speaks  of  ^filling  up,'  or  'perfecting  that 
which  is  lacking  in  their  faith.'  The  general  idea  of 
the  word,  then,  is  to  make  sound,  or  fit,  or  complete, 
by  restoring,  by  mending,  by  filling  up  what  is  lacking, 
and  by  adapting  all  together  in  harmonious  co- 
operation. And  so  this  is  what  Christians  ought  to 
look  for,  and  to  desire  as  being  the  will  of  God 
concerning  them.  The  writer  goes  on  to  still  further 
deepen  the  idea  when  he  says,  'make  you  perfect  in 
every  good  work ' :  where  the  word  ivork  is  a  sup- 
plement, and  unnecessarily  limits  the  idea  of  the  text. 
For  that  applies  much  rather  to  character  than  to 
work,  and  the  'make  you  perfect  in  every  good'  refers 
rather  to  an  inward  process  than  to  any  outward 
manifestation.  And  this  character,  thus  harmonised, 
corrected,  restored,  filled  up  where  it  is  lacking,  and 


344  HEBREWS  [en.  xiii. 

that  in  regard  of  all  manner  of  good — '  whatsoever 
things  are  fair,  and  lovely,  and  of  good  report' — that 
character  is  'well-pleasing  to  God.' 

So,  brethren,  you  see  the  width  of  the  hopes — ay  !  of 
the  confidence — that  you  and  I  ought  to  cherish.  We 
should  expect  that  all  the  discord  of  our  nature  shall 
be  changed  into  a  harmonious  co-operation  of  all  its 
parts  towards  one  great  end.  We  bear  about  within 
us  a  warning  anarchy  and  tumultuous  chaos,  where 
solid  and  fluid,  warm  and  cold,  light  and  dark,  calm 
and  storm,  contend.  Is  there  any  power  that  can 
harmonise  this  divided  nature  of  ours,  where  lusts  and 
passions,  and  inclinations  of  all  sorts,  drag  one  away, 
and  duty  draws  another,  so  as  that  a  man  is  torn 
apart  as  it  were  by  wild  horses  ?  There  is  one.  '  The 
worlds'  were  harmonised,  adapted,  and  framed 
together,  and  chaos  turned  into  order  and  beauty,  and 
the  God  of  Peace  will  come  and  do  that  for  us,  if  we 
will  let  Him,  so  that  the  long  schism  which  affects  our 
natures,  and  makes  us  say  sometimes,  'I  find  a  law 
in  my  members  warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind.' 
•  Oh !  wretched  man  that  I  am ;  who  shall  deliver 
me  from  the  body  of  this  death?'  may  be  changed 
into  perfect  harmony,  and  the  'bear  shall  eat  straw 
like  the  ox,  and  the  lion  shall  lie  down  with  the  lamb ; 
and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them ' — the  meekness  of  a 
patient  love  bridling  all  their  ravening  passions.  It  is 
possible  that  our  hearts  may  be  united  to  fear  Ilia 
name ;  and  that  one  unbroken  temper  of  whole-spirited 
submission  may  be  ours. 

Again,  we  should  expect,  and  desire,  and  strive 
towards  the  correction  of  all  that  is  wrong,  the  mending 
of  the  nets,  the  restoring  of  the  havoc  wrought  in 
legitimate  occupations  and  by  any  other  cause.    Again, 


V.  21]  THE  GREAT  PRAYER  845 

we  may  strive  with  hope  and  confidence  towards  the 
supply  of  all  that  is  lacking.  '  In  every  good ' — an  all- 
round  completeness  of  excellence  ought  to  be  the  hope, 
and  the  aim,  as  well  as  the  prayer,  of  every  Christian. 
Of  course  our  various  perfectings  will  be  various. 
'Star  differeth  from  star  in  glory,' and  the  new  man 
in  many  respects  follows  the  lines  of  the  old  man,  and 
temperament  is  permanent.  But  still,  whilst  all  that 
is  true,  and  while  each  shall  ray  back  the  divine  light 
and  radiance  at  a  different  angle,  and  so  with  a 
different  hue  from  that  which  his  neighbour,  standing 
beside  him,  may  catch  and  reflect,  on  the  other  hand 
the  gospel  is  given  to  us  to  correct  temperament,  and 
to  make  the  most  uncongenial  types  of  grace  and 
excellence  ours.  It  is  meant  to  make  it  possible  that 
men  should  'gather  grapes  of  thorns  and  figs  of 
thistles ';  and  to  correct  and  fill  up  what  is  wrong  and 
what  is  defective  in  our  natural  dispositions,  so  as  that 
the  passionate  man  may  be  made  meek,  and  the 
hesitating  man  may  be  made  prompt,  and  the  animal 
man  may  be  sublimed  into  spirit,  and  all  that  is  proper 
to  my  peculiar  constitution  and  character  may  be 
curbed  and  limited,  and  much  that  is  not  congenial  to 
it  may  be  appropriated  and  made  mine.  We  are  all 
apt  to  grow  one-sided  Christians,  and  it  is  our  business 
to  try  to  make  ours  the  things  that  are  lacking  in  our 
faith,  and  to  supplement,  by  the  grace  of  God  working 
in  our  hearts,  the  defects  of  our  qualities  and  the 
failures  of  our  disposition  and  temperament.  Do  not 
grow  like  a  tree  stuck  in  the  middle  of  a  shrubbery, 
which  has  only  space  to  put  forth  branches  on  one  side, 
and  is  all  lop-sided  and  awry;  but  like  some  symmet 
rical  growth  out  in  the  open,  equal  all  round  the  strong 
bole,  and  rising  in  perfect  completeness  of  harmonious 


346  HEBREWS  [ch.  xm. 

beauty  to  the  toi)most  twig  that  looks  up  to  the  sky. 
God  means  to  make  us  •  perfect  in  every  good ' ;  to 
harmonise,  to  correct,  to  restore,  to  perfect  us,  that  we, 
having  all  grace,  may  abound  in  all  good  to  His  glory. 

Such  is  His  purpose.  Ah,  brethren!  has  not  the 
recognition  of  that  as  His  purpose  alarmingly  died 
out  of  our  minds ;  and  do  we  live  up  to  the  height  of 
this  prayer?  I  would  that  we  should  all  remember 
more,  as  defining  our  aims,  and  animating  our  courage, 
and  directing  our  hopes,  that '  this  is  the  will  of  God, 
even  our  sanctilication';  and  that,  when  faith  is  dim, 
and  effort  burns  low,  and  we  are  ready  to  put  all  such 
hopes  away  as  a  fair  dream,  we  might  be  stirred  to 
more  lofty  expectations,  and  to  open  our  mouths  wider 
by  the  thought  of  the  '  God  of  peace  that  brought  again 
from  the  dead  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of 
the  sheep,  by  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant'; 
and  ask  ourselves  what  result  on  us  will  correspond  to 
that  mighty  name  of  the  Lord. 

IL  And  so,  secondly,  note  the  divine  work  which 
fulfils  the  prayer. 

'  Working  in  you  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  His 
sight,  through  Jesus  Christ.'  Creation,  Providence 
and  all  God's  works  in  the  world  are  also  through 
Jesus  Christ.  But  the  work  which  is  spoken  of  here 
is  yet  greater  and  more  wonderful  than  the  general 
operations  of  the  creating  and  preserving  God,  which 
also  are  produced  and  ministered  through  that  eternal 
Word  by  whom  the  heavens  were  of  old,  and  by  whom 
the  heavens  are  still,  sustained  and  administered. 
There  is,  eays  my  text,  an  actual  divine  operation 
in  the  inmost  spirit  of  every  believing  man. 

I  suppose  that  everybody  must  believe  that,  who 
believes  in  a  God  having  any  real  connection  with  His 


V.  21]  THE  GREAT  PRAYER  347 

creatures.  Surely  He  is  not  so  imprisoned  in  His  own 
majesty,  or  shut  out  from  His  own  creation,  by  His 
own  creation,  as  that  He  cannot  touch  the  spirits  which 
He  has  made.  And  surely  we  are  not  so  walled  up  by 
our  own  separate  individuality  as  that  we  cannot,  if 
we  will,  open  the  door  for  Him  to  come  in  and  dwell 
with  us,  and  work  on  us.  Surely  if  there  be  any  reality 
in  the  gospel  teaching  at  all  there  is  this  in  it,  that 
Christ  in  us,  or  God  in  Christ  working  in  us  by  His 
divine  spirit,  is  the  crown  of  that  hope  and  blessing 
of  which  Christ  for  us  is  the  beginning  and  foundation. 

I  do  not  want  men  to  think  less  of  the  Cross.  God 
forbid  I  But  I  do  feel,  and  feel  growingly,  that  the 
Christianity  of  this  generation  has  not  a  firm  hold  of 
this  other  aspect  of  Christ's  work.  Do  not  think  less 
of  what  He  has  done,  but,  oh  !  think  more  of  what  He 
is  doing.  The  perspective  of  our  Christian  faith  is 
wrong :  not  that  we  draw  the  Cross  too  large,  but  that 
we  paint  the  dove  too  small.  And  I  would  for  myself 
and  for  you,  dear  brethren,  lay  this  thought  upon  our 
hearts,  as  a  far  more  important  one  than  the  ordinary 
type  of  Christian  thinking  makes  it  out  to  be — the 
present  dwelling  of  God  in  Christ,  through  the  divine 
spirit,  in  the  hearts  of  all  who  believe,  and  working 
there  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight. 

If  that  has  truth,  surely  these  things  follow  as 
our  plain  duty.  Expect  that  operation !  Do  you  ? 
You  Christian  men  and  women,  do  you  believe  that 
God  will  work  in  your  hearts?  Some  of  you  do  not 
live  as  if  you  did.  Desire  it !  Do  you  desire  it  ?  Do 
you  want  Him  to  come  and  clear  out  that  stable  of 
filth  that  you  carry  about  with  you  ?  Do  you  wish 
Him  to  come  and  sift  and  search,  and  bring  the 
candle  of  the  Lord  into  the  dusty  corners?    Do  you 


348  HEBREWS  [en.  xm. 

want  to  get  rid  of  what  is  not  pleasing  in  His  sight? 
Would  you  like  Ilim  to  come  and  search  you,  '  to  try 
you  and  see  if — ah,  it  is  not  an  if! — 'there  be  any 
wicked  way  in  you,  and  lead  you' — where  alas!  our 
feet  are  often  7iot  found — 'in  the  way  everlasting'? 
Expect  it !  desire  it !  pray  for  it !  And  when  you  have 
got  it,  see  that  you  profit  by  it ! 

God  does  not  work  by  magic.  Tlie  Spirit  of  God 
which  cleanses  men's  hearts  cleanses  them  on  condition, 
first,  of  their  faith ;  second,  of  their  submission ;  and, 
third,  of  their  use  of  His  gift.  If  you  fling  yourselves 
into  the  roar  of  worldly  life,  the  noise  of  the  streets, 
and  the  whirring  of  the  looms,  and  the  racket  of  the 
children  in  the  nursery,  and  the  buzzing  of  temptations 
round  about  you,  and  the  yelpings  for  food  of  your 
own  passions,  will  deafen  your  ears  so  as  that  you  will 
never  hear  the  still,  small  voice  that  speaks  a  present 
God.  If  God  dwells  in  us  and  works  in  us,  let  us  yield 
ourselves  to  the  workings  and  open  our  hearts  to  the 
Guest,  and  say,  '  Into  every  corner,  O  Lord,  I  would 
that  Thou  wouldst  go,  to  restore  and  complete.' 

III.  Lastly,  notice  the  visible  manifestation  of  this 
inward  work. 

Now  the  writer  of  our  text  employs  the  same  word 
in  the  two  clauses,  in  order  to  bring  out  the  idea  of  a 
correspondence  between  the  human  and  the  Divine 
"Worker.  '  To  wor^k  His  will,  icorking  in  you  that  which 
is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight.' 

God  works  in  order  that  you  and  I  may  work.  Our 
action  is  to  follow  His.  Practical  obedience  is  the 
issue,  and  it  is  the  test,  of  having  this  divine  operation 
in  our  hearts.  There  are  plenty  of  people  who  will 
talk  largely  about  spiritual  gifts,  and  almost  vaunt 
their  possession  of  such  a  divine  operation.    Let  us 


V.  21]  THE  GREAT  PRAYER  849 

bring  them  and  ourselves  to  this  test :  Are  you  doing 
God's  will  in  daily  life  in  the  little  things?  In  the 
monotonous  grind  of  the  dusty,  level  road  with  never 
a  turn  in  it,  and  the  same  thing  to  be  done  to-morrow 
that  was  done  to-day,  and  so  on  for  indefinite  weeks 
and  months,  are  you,  with  the  spirit  that  freshens  the 
monotony,  doing  God's  will  ?  If  so,  then  you  may 
believe  that  God  is  working  in  you.  If  not,  it  is  no  use 
talking  about  spiritual  gifts.  The  test  of  being  filled 
with  the  divine  operation  is  that  our  actions  shall  be 
conformed  to  His  will.  '  As  many  as  are  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  Sons  of  God.'  That  is  a  pin 
prick  that  will  empty  many  a  swollen  bladder,  and 
bring  it  down  to  its  real  tenuity  of  substance. 

Action  is  the  end  of  all.  We  get  the  truth,  we  get 
our  souls  saved,  we  have  all  the  abundance  and 
exuberance  of  divine  revelation,  we  have  the  Cross  of 
Jesus  Christ,  we  have  the  gift  of  the  Divine  Spirit — 
miracles  and  marvels  of  all  sorts  have  been  done  for 
the  one  purpose,  to  make  us  able  to  do  what  is  right 
in  God's  sight,  and  to  do  it  because  it  is  His  will. 

This  practical  obedience  to  God's  will  is  the  perfec- 
tion of  human  conduct.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
man  who  does  good  things  without  reference  to  the 
highest — viz.,  the  will  of  God — in  the  doing  of  them, 
lacks  the  fine  gold  that  gilds  his  deed ;  and  the  violet 
of  his  virtue  is  scentless.  A  good  thing  may  be  done 
without  reference  to  God — good  from  the  point  of  view 
of  morality  and  the  self-sacrifice  and  generosity  that 
are  embodied  in  it.  But  no  good  thing  reaches  its 
supremest  goodness  unless  it  be  an  act  of  conscious 
obedience  to  God's  will. 

And  this  doing  of  the  will  of  God  is  perfect  blessed- 
ness.    All  things  are  right  for  us  if  we  submit  to  the 


350  HEBREWS  [cH.  xiii. 

will  of  our  Father.  No  storms  can  blow  us  out  of  our 
course  then.  'Thou  shalt  make  a  league  with  the 
beasts  of  the  field,  and  the  stones  of  the  field  shall 
be  at  peace  with  thee,'  for  all  creatures  being  God's 
servants,  are  in  covenant  with  him  who  does  the  will 
of  the  Lord. 

And  how  are  we  to  do  it,  brother?  The  world  says, 
'cultivate  your  own  nature;  correct  your  faults-; 
strive  to  fill  up  your  deficiencies.'  Christ  says,  'Cast 
away  yourselves ;  and  trust  to  Me ;  and  I  will  give  you 
new  life,  and  a  new  spirit.  Cultivate  that ! '  If  we  are 
to  do  God's  will  we  must  have  the  spirit  of  Him  who 
said,  '  I  come  to  do  Thy  will,  O  Lord  ;  and  Thy  law  is 
within  My  heart.'  Let  us  open  our  hearts  to  Him ; 
let  us  seek  for  Him  to  enter  in.  And  then, '  the  God  of 
peace,  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  the  Lord 
Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the 
blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  shall  make  us 
perfect  in  every  good ;  to  do  His  will,  working  in  us 
that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight,  through  Jesus 
Christ,' 


GENERAL  EPISTLE  OF  JAMES 


PATIENCE  AND  HER  WORK 

'Let  patience  have  her  perfect  work,  that  ye  maybe  perfect  and  entire,  wanting 
nothing.'— James  i.  L 

It  does  not  appear  from  the  rest  of  this  letter  that  the 
persons  to  whom  it  was  addressed  were  under  the 
pressure  of  any  particular  trouble  or  affliction.  Seeing 
that  they  are  '  the  twelve  tribes  which  are  scattered 
abroad,'  the  width  of  that  superscription  makes  it  im- 
probable that  the  recipients  were  undergoing  any 
common  experience.  It  is  the  more  noteworthy,  there- 
fore, that  at  the  very  outset  James  gives  this  exhorta- 
tion bearing  upon  trials  and  troubles.  Clearly  it  is  not, 
as  we  often  take  it  to  be,  a  counsel  only  for  the 
sorrowful,  or  an  address  only  to  a  certain  class  of 
persons,  but  it  is  a  general  exhortation  applicable  to 
all  sorts  of  people  in  all  conditions  of  life,  and  indis- 
pensable, as  he  goes  on  to  say,  for  any  progress  in 
Christian  character. 

'Let  patience  have  her  perfect  work'  is  an  advice 
not  only  for  sad  hearts,  or  for  those  who  may  be 
bowed  down  under  any  special  present  trouble,  but 
for  us  all.  And  it  is  the  condition  on  which  it  is 
possible,  and  without  which  it  is  impossible,  that  any 
Christian  man  should  be  '  perfect  and  entire,  wanting 
nothing.'  So  I  want  you  to  look  with  me,  first,  at 
what  is  the  scope  of  this  connspl ;  and  then  at  how  it 

851 


352  JAMES  [CH.I. 

can  be  obtained;  and  then  why  it  is  so  important: 
what — how — why. 

I.  First,  then,  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  counsel  to 
'let  patience  have  its  perfect  work '  ? 

Notice  that  the  very  language  of  the  text  puts  aside 
the  common  notion  that  patience  is  a  passive  grace. 
The  '  patience  '  of  my  text  does  '  work.'  It  is  an  active 
thing,  whether  that  work  be  the  virtues  that  it  produces, 
or,  as  is  more  probable,  its  own  preservation,  in  un- 
broken activity.  In  any  case,  the  patience  that  James 
would  have  us  all  cultivate  is  an  intensely  active 
energy,  and  not  a  mere  passive  endurance.  Of  course 
I  know  that  it  takes  a  great  deal  of  active  energy  to 
endure  passively.  There  is  a  terrible  strain  upon  the 
nerves  in  lying  still  on  the  operating-table  without 
wincing,  and  letting  the  surgeon's  knife  cut  deep  with- 
out shrinking  or  screaming.  There  is  much  force  that 
goes  to  standing  motionless  when  the  wind  is  blowing. 
But,  for  all  that,  the  mere  bearing  of  trouble  by 
no  means  covers  the  whole  ground  of  this  royal  and 
supreme  virtue  to  which  my  text  is  here  exhorting  us. 
For,  as  I  have  often  had  occasion  to  say,  the  concep- 
tion of  *  patience '  in  the  New  Testament  includes, 
indeed,  that  which  is  generally  supposed  to  be  its  sole 
signification — viz.,  bearing  unresistingly  and  unmur- 
muring, and  with  the  full  consent  of  a  yielding  will, 
whatever  pains,  sorrows,  losses,  troubles,  or  disappoint- 
ments may  come  into  our  lives,  but  it  includes  more 
than  that.  It  is  the  fixed  determination  to  '  bate  not 
one  jot  of  heart  or  hope,  but  still  bear  up,  and  steer 
right  onwards,'  in  spite  of  all  hindrances  and  antagon- 
isms which  may  storm  against  us.  It  is  perseverance 
in  the  teeth  of  the  wind,  and  not  merely  keeping  our 
place  in  spite  of  it,  that  James  exhorts  us  to  here.    The 


V.4]       PxVTIENCE  AND  HER  WORK        853 

ship  that  lies  at  anchor,  with  a  strong  cable  and  a  firm 
grip  of  the  flukes  in  a  good  holding-ground,  and  rides 
out  any  storm  without  stirring  one  fathom's  length 
from  its  place,  exhibits  one  form  of  this  perseverance, 
that  is  patience.  The  ship  with  sails  wisely  set,  and  a 
firm  hand  at  the  tiller,  and  a  keen  eye  on  the  compass, 
that  uses  the  utmost  blast  to  bear  it  nearer  its  desired 
haven,  and  never  yaws  one  hairbreadth  from  the 
course  that  is  marked  out  for  it,  exhibits  the  other  and 
the  higher  form.  And  that  is  the  kind  of  thing  that 
the  Apostle  is  here  recommending  to  us — not  merely 
passive  endurance,  but  a  brave,  active  perseverance 
in  spite  of  antagonisms,  in  the  course  that  conscience, 
illuminated  by  God,  has  bidden  us  to  run. 

And  if  3'ou  want  instances  of  it  I  will  give  you  two. 
'He  steadfastly  set  His  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem.'  All 
through  Christ's  life  the  shadow  of  the  Cross  closed  His 
view ;  and,  unfaltering,  unswerving,  unresting,  unre- 
luctant.  He  measured  every  step  of  the  path,  and  was 
turned  aside  by  nothing;  because  'for  that  hour  He 
came  into  the  world,'  and  could  not  blench  because 
He  loved. 

I  will  give  you  another,  lower,  and  yet  like,  caught 
from  and  kindled  by,  the  supreme  example  of  persis- 
tence in  duty.  '  None  of  these  things  move  me,  neither 
count  I  my  life  dear  to  myself,  that  I  might  finish  my 
course  with  joy.'  The  Apostle,  who  was  warned  on  all 
sides  by  voices  of  prophets,  and  by  tears  and  by  sup- 
plications of  friends,  had  his  path  clearly  marked  out 
for  him,  by  his  own  conscience  responsive  to  the  will 
of  God.  And  that  path,  whatsoever  happened,  he  was 
resolved  to  tread.  And  that  is  the  temper  that  my  text 
commanrls  us  all  to  cultivate. 

Beautiful  and  hard  as  bearing  sorrows  rightly  may 

z 


854  JAMES  [CH.  l 

be,  that  is  only  a  little  corner  of  the  grace  that  my 
text  enjoins. 

And  so,  dear  friends,  will  you  let  me  put  the  two  or 
three  words  more  that  I  have  to  say  about  this  matter 
into  the  shape  of  counsel,  not  for  the  sake  of  dictating, 
but  for  the  sake  of  giving  point  to  my  words?  I  would 
say,  then,  to  every  man,  bear  unmurmuring  the  burdens 
and  sorrows  that  each  of  you  have  to  bear.  There  are 
some  of  us,  no  doubt,  who  have  some  special  grief  lying 
at  our  hearts.  There  are  many  of  us,  I  doubt  not,  who 
know  what  it  is  to  have  for  all  the  rest  of  our  lives  a 
wound  that  never  can  be  healed,  to  carry  a  weight  that 
never  can  be  lessened,  and  to  walk  in  a  darkness  that 
never  can  be  lightened.  Irremediable  losses  and 
sorrows  are  the  portion  of  some  of  my  hearers.  Let 
patience  have  her  '  perfect  work ' ;  and  bow,  bow  to 
that  supreme  and  loving  will. 

But,  beyond  that,  do  not  let  all  your  effort  and 
energy  be  swallowed  up  in  rightly  enduring  what  you 
may  have  to  endure.  There  are  many  of  us  who  make 
some  disappointment,  some  loss,  some  grief,  the  excuse 
for  shirking  plain  duty.  There  is  nothing  more  selfish 
than  sorrow,  and  there  is  nothing  more  absorbing, 
unless  we  guard  against  its  tendency  to  monopolise. 
Work !  Work  for  others,  work  for  God  is  our  best 
comforter  next  to  the  presence  of  God's  Divine  Spirit. 
There  is  nothing  that  so  lightens  the  weight  of  a  life- 
long sorrow  as  to  make  it  the  stimulus  to  a  lifelong 
devotion ;  and  if  our  patience  has  its  perfect  work  it 
will  not  make  us  sit  with  folded  hands,  weeping  for  the 
days  that  are  no  more,  but  it  will  drive  us  into  heroic 
and  energetic  service,  in  the  midst  of  which  there  will 
come  some  shadow  of  consolation  or,  at  least,  some 
blessed  oblivion  of  sorrow, 


V.4]       PATIENCE  AND  HER  WORK       355 

Again,  I  would  say,  on  the  wider  view  of  the  meaning 
of  this  great  exhortation,  let  no  antagonism  or  opposi- 
tion of  any  sort  come  between  us  and  the  plain  path  of 
Christian  service  and  duty.  And  remember  that  the 
patience  of  my  text  has  to  be  applied,  not  only  in 
reference  to  the  unswerving  prosecution  of  the  course 
which  God  and  our  own  consciences  dictate  to  us  in  the 
face  of  difficulties,  sorrows,  and  losses,  but  also  to  the 
unswerving  prosecution  of  that  same  path  in  the  face 
of  the  opposite  things — earthly  delights  and  pleasures, 
and  the  seductions  of  the  world,  as  well  as  the  dark- 
nesses and  sorrows  of  the  world.  He  that  lets  his 
endurance  have  its  perfect  work  will  scorn  delights  as 
well  as  subdue  sorrows.  The  clouds  darken,  but  the 
sun  dazzles.  It  is  not  only  the  rocks  that  threaten 
Ulysses  and  his  crew,  the  sirens  sit  upon  their  island 
home,  with  their  harps  of  gold,  and  trill  their  sweet 
songs,  and  no  man  understands  what  Christian  endur- 
ance is  who  has  not  learned  that  he  has  to  '  endure '  in 
the  face  of  joys  as  well  as  in  the  face  of  sorrows,  and  that 
persistence  in  the  Christian  course  means  that  we  shall 
spurn  the  one  and  turn  our  backs  upon  the  other  when 
either  of  them  threaten  to  draw  us  aside  from  the 
path. 

I  might  gather  all  that  I  have  to  say  about  this  great 
queenly  virtue  of  perseverance  in  the  face  of  antagon- 
isms into  the  one  word  of  the  Apostle,  *  I  count  them 
but  dung  that  I  may  win  Christ.'  'Forgetting  the 
things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those 
that  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark.'  •  Let  patience 
have  her  perfect  work.' 

II.  And  now,  secondly,  a  word  as  to  how  this  precept 
may  best  be  carried  out. 

It   is  a  precept.     The  perfecting    of    Christian  en- 


356  JAMES  [en.  i. 

durance  is  not  a  thing  that  comes  without  effort. 
And  so  the  Apostle  puts  it  into  the  shape  of  an 
exhortation  or  an  injunction.  He  does  not  specify 
methods,  but  I  may  venture  to  do  so,  in  a  few 
sentences. 

And  I  put  first  and  foremost  here,  as  in  all  regions 
of  Christian  excellence  and  effort,  the  one  specific 
which  makes  men  like  the  Master — keeping  near  Him. 
As  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  puts  it,  'consider'  (by 
way  of  comparison)  Him  that  endured,  lest  ye  be 
wearied  and  faint  in  your  minds.  '  Ye  have  not  yet 
resisted  unto  blood,  striving  against  sin.' 

Oh,  brethren !  there  is  nothing  that  sucks  the  bright- 
ness out  of  earthly  joys  when  they  threaten  to 
interrupt  our  course,  and  dazzle  our  eyes,  like  turning 
our  attention  to  Christ,  and  looking  at  Him.  And 
there  is  nothing  that  takes  the  poison-sting,  and  the 
irritation  consequent  on  it,  out  of  earthly  sorrows  like 
remembering  the  'Man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief.'  Am  I  to  grumble  when  I  think  of  Him  ?  Shall 
I  make  a  moan  and  a  mourning  for  my  sorrows  when 
I  remember  His  ?  Am  I  to  say,  '  O  Lord !  Thou  hast 
given  me  as  much  as  I  can  manage  in  bearing  this 
terrible  blow  which  Thou  hast  aimed  at  me,  "without 
repining  against  Thee.  I  cannot  do  any  work  because 
I  have  got  so  much  to  bear'  ?  Are  we  to  say  that  when 
we  remember  how  He  counted  not  His  life  dear  to 
Himself,  and  bore  all,  and  did  all,  that  He  might 
accomplish  the  Father's  will?  Do  not  let  us  magnify 
our  griefs,  but  measure  them  by  the  side  of  Christ's. 
Do  not  let  us  yield  to  our  impatience,  but  rather  let  us 
think  of  Him.  Consider  Him,  and  patience  will  have 
her  perfect  work. 

Again,  let  me  say,  if  we  would  possess  in  its  highest 


V.  4]       PATIENCE  AND  HER  WORK       857 

degree  tliis  indispensable  grace  of  persistent  deter- 
mination to  pursue  the  Christian  course  in  spite  of  all 
antagonisms,  we  must  cultivate  the  habit  of  thinking 
of  life,  in  all  its  vicissitudes,  as  mainly  meant  to  make 
character.  That  is  what  the  Apostle  is  saying  in  the 
context.  He  says,  'Brethren,  count  it  all  joy  when 
you  fall  into  divers  temptations.'  That  is  a  paradox. 
It  bids  a  man  to  be  glad  because  he  has  trouble  and  is 
sad.  It  seems  ridiculous,  but  the  next  verse  solves  the 
paradox:  'Knowing  this,  that  the  trial  of  your  faith 
worketh  patience.'  That  is  to  say— if  I  rightly  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  this  world  in  its  bearing  on 
myself,  the  intention  of  my  whole  life  to  make  me 
what  God  would  have  me  to  be,  then  I  shall  not 
measure  things  by  their  capacity  to  delight  and  please 
taste,  ambitions,  desires,  or  sense,  but  only  by  their 
power  to  mould  me  into  His  likeness.  If  I  understand 
that  the  meanings  of  sorrow  and  joy  are  one,  that 
God  intends  the  same  when  He  gives  and  when  He 
withdraws,  that  the  fervid  suns  of  autumn  and  the 
biting  blasts  of  November  equally  tend  to  the  pro- 
duction of  the  harvest,  that  day  and  night  come  from 
the  same  cause — the  revolution  of  the  earth ;  if  I 
understand  that  life  is  but  the  scaffolding  for  building 
character,  and  that,  if  I  take  out  of  this  world,  with  all 
its  fading  sweets  and  its  fleeting  sadnesses,  a  soul  en- 
larged, ennobled  by  difficulties  and  by  gladnesses,  then 
I  shall  welcome  them  both  when  they  come,  and  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  will  be  able  to  deflect  me  from 
my  course. 

A.nd  so,  lastly,  about  this  matter,  I  would  say  bring 
the  future  into  immediate  connection  with  the  present, 
and  that  will  illuminate  the  dark  places,  will  minimise 
the  sorrows,  will  make  the  crooked  things  straight  and 


358  JAMES  [en.  i. 

the  rough  places  plain,  will  prevent  joy  from  being 
absorbing,  and  anxiety  from  being  corroding,  and 
sorrow  from  being  monopolising,  and  will  enable  us  to 
understand  how  all  that  is  here  is  but  preparatory  and 
disciplinary  for  that  great  and  serene  future.  And  so 
the  light  afQiction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  will  not 
be  so  very  hard  to  bear;  and  the  efforts  at  likeness 
to  Jesus  Christ,  the  consequences  of  which  will  last 
through  eternity,  will  not  be  so  very  difficult  to  keep 
up ;  and  patience,  fed  by  contemplation  of  the  suffering 
Christ,  and  nurtured  further  by  consideration  of  the 
purpose  of  life,  and  stimulated  by  the  vision  of  the 
future  to  which  life  here  is  but  the  vestibule,  will  have 
'her  perfect  work.' 

III.  And,  lastly,  Why  is  this  grace  so  important? 

James  says,  with  his  favourite  repetition  of  the  same 
word,  'Let  her  work  be  perfect,  that  ye  maybe  perfect.' 
Such  endurance  is  indispensable  to  growth  in  Christian 
character. 

I  do  not  need  to  enter,  at  this  stage  of  my  sermon, 
on  the  differences  between  '  perfect '  and  '  entire.'  The 
one  describes  the  measure  of  the  individual  graces 
belonging  to  the  man;  the  other  describes  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  assemblage  of  such  graces.  In  each 
he  is  '  perfect,'  and,  having  all  that  belongs  to  complete 
humanity,  he  is  '  entire.'  That  is  the  ideal  to  which  we 
have  to  press. 

That  is  an  ideal  to  which  we  may  indefinitely 
approximate.  There  are  people  now — as  there  always 
have  been — who  are  apt  to  substitute  emotion  and 
passivity  for  effort  in  the  path  of  Christian  perfection. 
I  would  take  James's  teaching.  Let  your  perseverance 
have  her  perfect  work,  and  by  toil  and  by  protracted 
effort,  and  by  setting  your  teeth  against  all  seductions, 


V.  4J       PATIENCE  AND  HER  WORK       359 

and  by  curbing  and  ruling  your  sorrows,  you  will  reach 
the  goal.  God  makes  no  man  perfect  without  that 
man's  diligent  and  continuous  struggle  and  toil,  toil, 
indeed,  based  upon  faith ;  toil,  indeed,  which  receives 
the  blessing,  but  toil  all  the  same. 

Nor  need  I  remind  you,  I  suppose,  how,  in  both  the 
narrower  and  the  wider  sense  of  this  word,  the  per- 
severance of  my  text  is  indispensable  to  Christian 
character. 

I  dare  say  we  all  of  us  know  some  chronic  invalid 
say,  on  whose  worn  face  there  rests  a  gleam  like  that 
of  the  Lawgiver  when  He  came  down  from  the  mount, 
caused  by  sorrow  rightly  borne.  If  your  troubles,  be 
they  great  or  small,  do  not  do  you  good  they  do  you 
harm.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  being  made  obstinate, 
hard,  more  clinging  to  earth  than  before  by  reason  of 
griefs.  And  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  sorrow  rightly 
borne  being  the  very  strength  of  a  life,  and  delivering 
it  from  many  a  sin.  The  alabaster  sheet  which  is 
intended  to  be  fitted  into  the  lamp  is  pared  very  thin 
that  the  light  may  shine  through.  And  God  pares 
away  much  of  our  lives  in  order  that  through  what  is 
left  there  may  gleam  more  clearly  and  lambently  the 
light  of  an  indwelling  God. 

There  is  nothing  to  be  won  in  the  perfecting  of 
Christian  character  without  our  setting  ourselves  to 
it  persistently,  doggedly,  continuously  all  through  our 
lives.  Brethren,  be  sure  of  this,  you  will  never  grow 
like  Christ  by  mere  wishing,  by  mere  emotion,  but  only 
by  continual  faith,  rigid  self-control,  and  by  continual 
struggle.  And  be  as  sure  of  this,  you  will  never  miss 
the  mark  if,  'forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind, 
and  reaching  forth  to  those  that  are  before,'  you  'let 
patience  have  her  perfect  work,'  and  press  towards 


3G0  -  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

Him  who  is  Himself  the  Author  and  Finisher  of  our 
patience  and  of  our  faith. 


DIVINE  WISDOM,  AND  HOW  TO  GET  IT 

'  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  that  givcth  to  all  men  liberally, 
and  upbraideth  not.'— James  1.  6. 

•If  any  of  you  lack'  James  has  just  used  the  same 
word  in  the  previous  verse,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted 
that  the  principle  upon  which  our  authorised  trans- 
lators went  of  varying  the  rendering  of  identical 
expressions,  masks  the  repetition  here.  James  has 
just  been  telling  his  brethren  that  their  aim  should  be 
to  be  '  perfect  and  entire,  lacking  nothing.'  And  that 
thought  naturally  suggests  the  other  one  of  how  great 
the  contrast  is  between  that  possible  completeness  and 
the  actual  condition  of  Christians  in  general.  So  he 
gently  and  courteously  puts,  as  a  hypothesis,  what  is 
only  too  certain  a  fact  in  those  to  whom  he  is  speaking; 
and  says,  not  as  he  might  have  done,  ^  since  you  all 
lack,'  but,  with  gracious  forbearance,  ^if  any  of  you 
lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God.' 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  that,  in  this  hypothetical  ex- 
hortation there  are  three  points  to  be  noted,  two  of 
them  being  somewhat  unlike  what  we  should  have 
looked  for.  One  is  the  great  deficiency  in  the  average 
Christian  character — ivisdom ;  another  is  the  great 
means  of  supplying  it — ask  ;  and  the  third  is  the  great 
guarantee  of  the  supply — the  giving  God,  whose  gifts 
are  bestowed  on  all  liberally  and  without  upbraiding. 

I.  The  great  deficiency  in  the  average  Christian 
character — wisdom. 


V.5]  DIVINE  WISDOM 

Now,  that  is  not  exactly  what  we  should  have  ex- 
pected to  be  named  as  the  main  thing  lacking  in  the 
average  Christian.  If  we  had  been  asked  to  specify 
the  chief  defect  we  should  probably  have  thought  of 
something  else  than  wisdom.  But,  if  we  remember 
who  is  speaking,  we  shall  understand  better  what  ho 
means  by  this  word.  James  is  a  Jew,  steeped  through 
and  through  in  the  Old  Testament.  We  have  only  to 
recall  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  what  it  has  to  say 
about  'wisdom'  and  'folly,'  by  which  it  means  some- 
thing a  great  deal  deeper  and  more  living  than 
knowledge  and  ignorance  or  intellectual  strength  and 
feebleness,  or  practical  sagacity  and  its  opposite.  That 
deeper  conception  of  wisdom  which  bases  it  all  on 
'the  fear  of  the  Lord,'  and  regards  it  as  moral  and 
spiritual  and  not  as  merely  or  chiefly  intellectual,  per- 
vades the  whole  New  Testament.  This  Epistle  is  more 
cT  an  echo  of  the  earlier  revelation  than  any  other 
part  of  the  New  Testament,  and  we  may  be  quite  sure 
that  James  uses  this  venerable  word  with  all  the 
associations  of  its  use  there,  and  in  all  the  solemn 
depth  of  meaning  which  he  had  learned  to  attach  to 
it,  on  the  lips  of  psalmists,  prophets,  and  teachers  of 
the  true  wisdom.  If  that  were  at  all  doubtful,  it  is 
made  certain  by  his  own  subsequent  description  of 
•  wisdom.'  He  says  that  it  is  '  from  above,'  and  then 
goes  on  to  ascribe  all  manner  of  moral  and  spiritual 
good  to  its  presence  and  working  on  a  man.  It  is 
'pure,  peaceable,  gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of 
mercy  and  good  fruits.'  You  cannot  say  such  glowing 
things  about  the  wisdom  which  has  its  seat  in  the 
understanding  only,  can  you?  These  characteristics 
must  apply  to  something  a  great  deal  more  august  and 
more  powerful  in  shaping  and  refining  character. 


'^^^  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

What,  then,  does  James  mean  by  'wisdom'?  He 
means  the  sum  of  j)ractical  religion.  With  him,  as 
with  the  psalmist,  sin  and  folly  are  two  names  for  the 
same  thing,  and  so  are  religion  and  wisdom.  He,  and 
only  he,  has  wisdom  who  knows  God  with  a  living 
heart-knowledge  which  gives  a  just  insight  into  the 
facts  of  life  and  the  bounds  of  right  and  wrong,  and 
which  regulates  conduct  and  shapes  the  whole  man 
with  power  far  beyond  that  of  knowledge  however 
wide  and  deep,  illuminating  intellect  however  power- 
ful. '  Knowledge '  is  poor  and  superficial  in  comparison 
with  this  wisdom,  which  may  roughly  be  said  to  be 
equivalent  to  practical  religion. 

The  use  of  this  expression  to  indicate  the  greatest 
deficiency  in  the  average  Christian  character,  just 
suggests  this  thought,  that  if  we  had  a  clear,  constant, 
certain,  God-regarding  insight  into  things  as  they  are, 
we  should  lack  little.  Because,  if  a  man  habitually 
kept  vividly  before  him  the  thought  of  God,  and  with 
it  the  true  nature  and  obligation  and  blessedness  of 
righteous,  loving  obedience,  and  the  true  foulness  and 
fatalness  of  sin — if  he  saw  these  with  the  clearness  and 
the  continuity  with  which  we  may  all  see  the  things 
that  are  unseen  and  eternal,  if  he  '  saw  life  steadily, 
and  saw  it  whole,'  if  he  saw  the  rottenness  and  the 
shallowness  of  earthly  things  and  temptations,  and  if 
he  saw  the  blessed  issue  of  every  God-pleasing  act — 
why !  the  perfecting  of  conduct  would  be  secured. 

It  would  be  an  impossibility  for  him,  with  all  that 
illumination  blazing  in  upon  him,  not  to  walk  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness  with  a  glad  and  serene  heart. 
I  do  not  believe  that  all  sin  is  a  consequence  of 
ignorance,  bat  I  do  believe  that  our  average  Christian 
life  would  bo  revolutionised  if  we  each  carried  clear 


V.  5]  DIVINE  WISDOM  863 

before  us,  and  continually  subjected  our  lives  to  the 
influence  of,  the  certain  verities  of  God's  word. 

And,  brethren,  I  think  that  there  is  a  practical 
direction  of  no  small  importance  here,  in  the  suggestion 
that  the  thing  that  we  want  most  is  clearer  and  more 
vivid  conceptions  of  the  realities  of  the  Christian 
revelation,  and  of  the  facts  of  human  life.  These  will 
act  as  tests,  and  up  will  start  in  his  own  shape  the 
fiend  that  is  whispering  at  our  ears,  when  touched  by 
the  spear  of  this  divine  wisdom.  So,  brethren,  here 
is  our  root-deficiency ;  therefore  instead  of  confining 
ourselves  to  trying  to  cure  isolated  and  specific  faults, 
or  to  attain  isolated  and  specific  virtues,  let  us  go 
deeper  down,  and  realise  that  the  more  our  whole 
natures  are  submitted  to  the  power  of  God's  truth,  and 
of  the  realities  of  the  future  and  of  the  present,  of 
Time  and  Eternity,  the  nearer  shall  we  come  to  being 
'  perfect  and  entire,'  lacking  nothing. 

II.  We  have  next  to  note  the  great  means  of  supply- 
ing that  great  deficiency — 'let  him  ask.' 

That  direction  might  at  first  sight  strike  one  as  being, 
like  the  specification  of  the  thing  lacking,  scarcely  what 
we  should  have  expected.  Does  James  say,  If  any  of 
you  lack  '  wisdom,'  let  him  sit  down  and  think  ?  No ! 
'  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,'  let  him  take  a  course  of 
reading?  No  !  '  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,'  let  him  go 
to  pundits  and  rabbis,  and  get  it  from  them  ?  No ! 
'  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask.'  A  strange 
apparent  disconnection  between  the  issue  and  the 
means  suggested !  Very  strange,  if  tvisdom  lives  only 
up  in  the  head !  not  so  strange  if  it  has  its  seat  in 
the  depths  of  the  human  spirit.  If  you  want  to  learn 
theology  you  have  to  study.  If  you  seek  to  master 
any  science  you  have  to  betake  yourself  to  the  appro- 


364  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

priate  discipline.  It  is  of  no  use  to  pray  to  God  to 
make  you  a  good  geologist,  or  botantist,  or  lawyer,  or 
doctor,  unless  you  also  take  the  necessary  means  to 
become  one.  But  if  a  man  wants  the  divine  wisdom, 
let  him  get  down  on  his  knees.  That  is  the  best  place 
to  secure  it.  'Let  him  ask';  because  that  insight,  so 
clear,  so  vivid,  so  constant,  and  so  perfectly  adequate 
for  the  regulation  of  the  life,  is  of  God.  It  comes  to 
us  from  the  Spirit  of  God  that  dwells  in  men's  hearts. 

I  believe  that  in  nothing  is  the  ordinary  tyi^e  of 
Christian  opinion  amongst  us,  in  this  generation,  so 
defective  as  in  the  obscurity  into  which  it  has  pushed 
that  truth,  of  the  Spirit  of  God  as  actually  dwelling  in 
men's  hearts.  And  that,  I  believe,  is  to  a  large  extent 
the  reason  why  the  other  truths  of  Christianity  have 
so  little  power  upon  people.  It  is  of  little  use  to  hold 
a  Christianity  which  begins  and  ends  with  the  fact  of 
Christ's  death  on  the  Cross.  It  is  of  less  use,  no  doubt, 
to  hold  a  Christianity  which  does  not  begin  with  that 
death.  But  if  it  ends  there,  it  is  imperfect  because,  as 
the  Apostle  put  it,  our  Christ,  the  Christ  who  sends 
wisdom  to  those  who  ask  it,  is  the  *  Christ  that  died, 
yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession  for  us,'  and 
sends  down  His  Spirit  on  us. 

And  to  receive  that  spirit  of  wisdom,  the  one  thing 
necessary  is  that  we  should  want  it.  That  is  all. 
Nothing  more,  but  nothing  less.  I  doubt  very  much 
whether  hosts  of  the  average  Christian  people  of  this 
generation  do  want  it,  or  would  know  what  to 
do  with  it  if  they  had  it ;  or  whether  the  gift  of  a 
heart  purged  from  delusions,  and  of  eyes  made  clear 
ahvnys  to  behold  the  God  who  is  ever  with  us,  and  the 
real  importance  of  the  things  around  us,  is  the  gift 


V.5]  DIVINE  WISDOM  8C5 

that  most  of  us  pray  for  most.  '  If  any  man  lack 
wisdom,  let  him  ask.'  It  is  a  gift,  and  it  is  to  bo 
obtained  from  that  Holy  Spirit  who  dwells  and  works 
in  all  believers.  The  measure  of  their  desire  is  the 
measure  of  their  possession.  That  wisdom  can  be  had 
for  the  asking,  and  is  not  to  be  won  by  proudly  self- 
reliant  effort. 

But  let  us  not  think  that  any  kind  of  'asking' 
suffices  to  put  that  great  gift  into  our  hearts.  The 
petition  that  avails  must  be  sincere,  intense,  constant, 
and  accompanied  by  corresponding  conduct. 

It  is  not  dropping  down  on  your  knees  for  two 
minutes  in  a  morning,  before  you  hurry  out  to  business, 
and  scrambling  over  a  formal  petition;  or  praying 
after  you  have  gone  to  bed  at  night,  and  perhaps 
falling  asleep  before  you  get  to  *Amen.'  It  is  not 
asking,  and  then  not  waiting  long  enough  to  get  the 
answer.  It  is  not  faint  and  feeble  desire,  but  one 
presented  with  continuity  which  is  not  shameless 
importunity,  but  patient  persistence.  It  must  breathe 
intense  desire  and  perfect  confidence  in  the  willingness 
of  the  Giver  and  in  the  power  of  prayer. 

If  our  vessels  are  empty  or  nearly  so,  while  the 
stream  is  rolling  its  broad,  flashing  flood  past  our 
doors,  if  we  sit  shivering  beside  dying  embers  while 
the  fire  blazes  high  on  the  hearth,  let  us  awake  to 
recognise  the  tragic  difference  between  what  we  might 
be  and  what  we  are,  and  let  us  listen  to  James's  other 
word,  '  Ye  have  not  because  ye  ask  not.'  '  If  any  of 
you  lack  wisdom ' — and,  alas !  how  many  of  us  do,  and 
that  how  sorelj'^ ! — 'let  him  ask  of  God.' 

III.  The  great  guarantee  that  such  petitions  shall  be 
answered. 

James  has  an  arrangement  of  words  in  the  original 


366  JAMES  [en.  i. 

which  can  scarcely  be  reproduced  in  an  English  trnns- 
lation,  but  which  maybe  partially  represented  thus: 
'Let  him  ask  of  the  giving  God.'  That  represents  not 
so  much  the  divine  giving  as  an  act,  but,  if  I  may  so 
say,  as  a  divine  habit.  It  is  just  what  the  Prayer-book 
says, '  His  nature  and  property  is  to  have  mercy.'  He 
is  the  giving  God,  because  Ho  is  the  loving  God ;  for 
love  is  essentially  the  imimlse  to  impart  itself  to  the 
beloved,  and  thereby  to  win  the  beloved  for  itself. 
That  is  the  very  life-breath  of  love,  and  such  is  the 
love  of  God.  There  is  a  must  even  for  that  heavenly 
nature.  He  inust  bestow.  He  is  the  '  giving';  and  He 
is  the  blessed  God  because  He  is  the  loving  and  the 
giving  God.  Just  as  the  sun  cannot  but  pour  out  his 
rays,  so  the  very  activity  of  the  divine  nature  is  bene- 
ficence and  self-impartation ;  and  His  joy  is  to  grant 
Himself  to  His  creature,  whom  He  has  made  empty  for 
the  very  purpose  of  giving  all  of  Himself  that  the  crea- 
ture is  capable  of  receiving. 

But  not  only  does  James  give  us  this  great  guarantee 
in  the  character  of  God,  but  he  goes  on  to  say,  '  He 
giveth  to  all  men.'  I  suppose  that ' all'  must  be  limited 
by  what  follows — viz.,  *  He  gives  to  all  who  ask.' 

'He  gives  to  all  men  liberally.'  That  is  a  beautiful 
thought,  but  it  is  not  the  whole  beauty  of  the  writer's 
idea.  The  word  translated  '  liberally,'  as  many  of  you 
know,  literally  means  'simply,  without  any  by-ends,' 
or  any  underlying  thought  of  what  is  to  be  gained  in 
return.  That  is  the  way  in  which  God  gives.  People 
have  sometimes  objected  to  the  doctrine  of  which  the 
Scripture  is  full  from  beginning  to  end,  that  God  is  His 
own  motive,  and  that  His  reason  in  all  His  acts  is  His 
own  glory,  that  it  teaches  a  kind  of  almighty  and 
divine  selfishness.     But  it  is  perfeetly  consistent  with 


V-.6]  DIVINE  WISDOM  867 

this  t^liought  of  my  text,  that  He  gives  simply  for  the 
^oenefit  of  the  recipient,  and  without  a  thought  of  what 
may  accrue  to  the  bestower.  For  why  does  God  desire 
His  glory  to  be  advanced  in  the  world  ?  For  any  good 
that  it  is  to  Him,  that  you  and  I  should  praise  Him  ? 
Yes!  good  to  Him  in  so  far  as  love  delights  to  bo 
recognised.  But,  beyond  that,  none.  The  reason  why 
He  seeks  that  men  should  know  and  recognise  His 
glory,  and  should  praise  and  magnify  it,  is  because  it 
is  their  life  and  their  blessedness  to  do  so.  He  desires 
that  all  men  should  know  Him  for  what  He  is,  because 
to  do  so  is  to  come  to  be  what  we  ought  to  be,  and 
what  He  has  made  us  to  try  to  be  ;  and  therein  to  enjoy 
Him  for  ever.  So  '  liberally,'  *  simply,'  for  the  sake  of 
the  poor  men  that  He  pours  Himself  upon.  He  gives. 

And  *  without  upbraiding.'  If  it  were  not  so,  who  of 
us  dare  ask  ?  But  He  does  not  say  when  we  come  to 
Him,  'What  did  you  do  with  that  last  gift  I  gave  you ? 
Were  you  ever  thankful  enough  for  those  other  bene- 
fits that  you  have  had?  What  is  become  of  all  those? 
Go  away  and  make  a  better  use  of  what  you  have  had 
before  you  come  and  ask  Me  for  any  more.'  That  is 
how  we  often  talk  to  one  another ;  and  rightly  enough. 
That  is  not  how  God  talks  to  us.  Time  enough  for 
upbraiding  after  the  child  has  the  gift  in  his  hand ! 
Then,  as  Christ  did  to  Peter,  He  says,  having  rescued 
him  first,  'Oh!  thou  of  little  faith;  wherefore  didst 
thou  doubt  ?'  The  truest  rebuke  of  our  misuse  of  His 
benefits,  of  our  faithlessness  to  His  character,  and  of 
the  poverty  of  our  askings,  is  the  largeness  of  His  gifts. 
He  gives  us  these,  and  then  He  bids  us  go  away,  and 
profit  by  them,  and,  in  the  light  of  His  bestowments, 
preach  rebukes  to  ourselves  for  the  poverty  of  our 
askings  and  our  squandering  of  His  gifts, 


SGS  JAMES  [cH.i. 

Oh,  brethren  !  if  wo  only  believed  that  He  is  not  an 
austere  man,  gathering  where  He  did  not  straw,  and 
reaping  where  He  did  not  sow,  but  a  '  giving  God  !'  If 
we  only  believed  that  He  gives  simply  because  fie  loves 
us  and  that  we  need  never  fear  our  unworthiness  will 
limit  or  restrain  His  bestowments,  what  mountains  of 
misconception  of  the  divine  character  would  bo  rolled 
away  from  many  hearts !  What  thick  obscuration  of 
clouds  would  be  swept  clean  from  between  us  and  the 
Bun !  We  do  not  half  enough  realise  that  He  is  the 
•  giving  God.'  Therefore,  our  prayers  are  poor,  and  our 
askings  troubled  and  faint,  and  our  gifts  to  Him  are 
grudging  and  few,  and  our  wisdom  woefully  lacking. 


THE  CROWN 

' .  .  .  The  crown  of  life,  which  the  Lord  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  Him.* 
—James  i.  12. 

My  purpose  is  to  bring  out  the  elements  of  the  blessed 
life  here,  by  grouping  together  those  New  Testament 
passages  which  represent  the  future  reward  under 
the  metaphor  of  the  'crown,'  and  so  to  gain,  if  not 
a  complete,  at  all  events  a  comprehensive  view  of 
the  elements  of  the  blessedness  of  the  perfected  life 
hereafter. 

These  passages  are  numerous.  Paul  speaks  of  '  the 
incorruptible  crown,'  the  reward  of  the  victorious 
athlete,  and  of  '  the  crown  of  righteousness,'  the  antici- 
pation of  which  soothed  and  elevated  his  last  solitary 
hours.  Peter  speaks  of  the  '  crown  of  glory,'  the 
reward  of  the  faithful  elders.  James  speaks  in  my 
text  of  the  '  crown  of  life '  which  the  man  wins  who  is 
proved  by  trial  and  stands  the   proof.    The  martyr 


V.  12]  THE  CROWN  8G9 

Church  at  Smyrna  is  encouraged  to  faithfulness  '  unto 
death'  by  the  promise  of  the  'crown  of  life'  from  the 
hands  of  the  Lord  of  life.  The  angel  of  the  Church  at 
Philadelphia  is  stimulated  to  'hold  fast  what  thou 
hast,  that  no  man  take  thy  crown.'  The  elders  '  cast 
their  crowns  before  the  throne.'  If  we  throw  all  these 
passages  together,  and  study  their  combined  effect, 
we  shall,  I  think,  get  some  helpful  and  stimulating 
thoughts. 

I.  I  ask  you,  then,  first  to  look  with  me  at  the 
general  idea  conveyed  by  the  symbol. 

Now  the  word  which  is  employed  in  the  passages  to 
which  we  have  referred  is  not  that  which  usually 
denotes  a  kingly  crown,  but  that  which  indicates  the 
garland  or  wreath  or  chaplet  of  festivity  and  victory. 
A  twist  of  myrtle  or  parsley  or  pine  was  twined  round 
the  brows  of  the  athlete  flushed  with  effort  and  victory. 
The  laurel  is  the  '  meed  of  mighty  conquerors.'  Roses, 
with  violets  or  ivy,  sat  upon  the  brows  of  revellers. 
And  it  is  thoughts  of  these  rather  than  of  the  kingly 
tiara  which  is  in  the  mind  of  the  New  Testament 
writers  ;  though  the  latter,  as  we  shall  see,  has  also  to 
be  included. 

So  we  get  three  general  ideals  on  which  I  touch  very 
lightly,  as  conveyed  by  the  emblem. 

The  first  is  that  of  victory  recognised  and  publicly 
honoured.  So  Paul  uses  the  symbol  in  this  sense  in 
both  the  instances  of  its  occurrence  to  which  we  have 
already  referred,  the  reward  of  the  racer  or  athlete  in 
the  palcestrum,  and  the  '  crown  of  righteousness  '  which 
was  to  follow  his  having  'fought  the  good  fight,  and 
finished  his  course.'  That  implies  that  the  present  is 
the  wrestling  ground,  and  that  the  issues  of  the  pre- 
sent lie  beyond  the  present.     We  do   not  look  for 

2a 


870  JAMES  [CH  I. 

flowers  on  the  hard-boaten  soil  of  the  arenn  ;  and  the 
time  of  conflict  is  no  time  for  seeking  for  delights.  If 
the  crown  be  yonder,  then  here  must  be  the  struggle; 
and  it  must  be  our  task  'to  scorn  delights  and  live 
laborious  days '  if  we  are  ever  to  find  that  blessed  result 
and  reward  of  life  here.  Wo  have,  then,  the  general 
idea  of  victory  recognised  and  publicly  honoured  by 
the  tumult  of  acclaim  of  the  surrounding  spectators. 
'  I  will  confess  His  name  before  the  angels  of  God.' 

Then  there  is  the  other  general  idea  of  festal  glad- 
ness. That,  I  suppose,  is  what  was  present  particularly 
to  Peter's  mind  when  he  talked  about  '  the  wreath  that 
fadeth  not  away.'  I  think  that  there  is  in  his  words 
a  probable  reference  to  a  striking  Old  Testament 
passage,  in  which  the  prophet  takes  the  drooping 
flowers  on  the  foreheads  of  the  drunkards  of  Samaria 
at  their  feast  as  an  emblem  of  the  swift  fading  of  their 
delights,  and  of  the  impending  destruction  of  their 
polity.  But,  says  Peter,  this  wreath  fades  never.  The 
flowers  of  heaven  do  not  droop.  It  is  an  emblem  of 
the  calm  and  permanent  delights  which  come  to  those 
behind  whom  is  change  with  its  sadness,  and  before 
whom  stretches  progress  with  its  blessedness.  Festal 
gladness,  society,  and  the  satisfaction  of  all  desires  are 
included  in  the  meaning  of  the  wreathed  amaranthine 
flowers  that  twine  round  immortal  brows. 

But  the  usage  in  the  Book  of  the  Apocalypse  stands 
upon  a  somewhat  different  footing.  There  are  no 
Gentile  images  there.  We  hear  nothing  about  Grecian 
games  and  heathen  wrestlings  in  that  book  ;  but  all 
moves  within  the  circle  of  Jewish  thought.  That  the 
word  which  is  employed  for  '  the  crown,'  though  it 
usually  meant  the  victors'  and  the  feasters'  chaplet, 
sometimes  also  mea,nt  the  king's  crown  of  sovereignty, 


V.12]  THE  CROWN  371 

is  obvious  from  one  or  two  of  its  uses  in  Scripture. 
For  the  'crown  of  thorns'  was  a  mockery  of  royalty, 
and  the  'golden  crowns'  which  the  elders  wear  in  the 
vision  are  associated  with  the  thrones  upon  which  they 
sit,  as  emblems,  not  of  festal  gladness  or  of  triumphant 
emergence  from  the  struggles  and  toils  of  life,  but  as 
symbols  of  roj-alty  and  dominion.  The  characteristic 
note  of  the  promises  of  the  Revelation  is  that  of 
Christ's  servants'  participation  in  the  royalty  of  their 
Lord.  So  to  the  other  two  general  ideas  which  I  have 
deduced  from  the  symbol  we  must  add  for  complete- 
ness this  third  one,  that  it  shadows,  in  some  of  the 
instances  of  its  use  at  all  events,  though  by  no  means 
in  all,  the  royalty  so  mysterious,  by  which  every  one 
of  Christ's  'brethren  is  like  the  children  of  a  king,' 
and  all  are  so  closely  united  to  Him  that  they  partici- 
pate in  His  dominion  over  all  creatures  and  things. 
Dominion  over  self,  dominion  over  the  universe,  a  rule 
mysterious  and  ineffable  which  is  also  service,  cheerful 
and  continuous,  are  contained  in  the  emblem. 

So  these  three  general  ideas,  victory,  festal  gladness 
and  abundance,  royalty  and  sovereignty,  are  taught  us 
by  this  symbol  of  the  crown. 

II.  Now,  secondly,  note  more  particularly  the  con- 
stituent parts  of  that  chaplet  of  blessedness. 

There  are  two  phrases  as  to  these,  amongst  the 
passages  with  which  we  are  now  concerned.  St.  James 
and  the  Book  of  Revelation  speak  of  the  '  crown  of  life,' 
and  Peter  speaks  of  the  '  crown  of  glory.'  That  is  to 
say,  the  material  of  which  the  garland  is  composed  is  no 
perishable  pine  or  myrtle,  but  it  is  woven,  as  it  were,  of 
•  life '  on  the  one  hand,  of  glory  on  the  other.  Or,  if  we 
do  not  venture  upon  such  a  violent  metaphor  as  that, 
we  can  at  least  say  that  the  crown  is  life  and  glory. 


372  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

Now,  as  to  the  first  of  these — what  dim  and  great 
thoughts  arc  taught  us  in  it!  'Life,'  in  the  New 
Testament,  does  not  mean  bare  existence,  but  in  its 
highest  sense  pure  and  blessed  existence  in  union  with 
God.  And  such  life — full,  perfect,  continual — is  re- 
garded as  being  in  itself  the  crown  and  reward  of 
faithful  Christian  living  here  below.  In  our  experi- 
ence life  is  often  a  burden,  a  weariness,  a  care.  If  it 
be  a  crown,  it  is  a  crown  of  thorns.  But  yonder,  to 
live  will  be  blessedness  ;  being  will  be  well-being.  The 
reward  of  heaven  will  simply  be  the  fact  of  living  in 
God.  Here  life  comes  painfully  trickling,  as  it  were, 
in  single  drops  through  a  narrow  rift  in  the  rock ; 
yonder  it  will  spread  a  broad  bosom,  flashing  beneath 
the  sunshine.  Here  the  plant  grows  strugglingly  in 
some  dusty  cleft,  amidst  uncongenial  surroundings, 
and  with  only  occasional  gleams  of  sunlight ;  its  leaves 
are  small,  its  stem  feeble,  its  blossoms  p>allid ;  yonder 
it  will  be  rooted  in  rich  soil  and  shone  upon  by  an 
unclouded  sun,  and  will  burst  into  flowers  and  forms 
of  beauty  that  we  know  nothing  of  here.  Life  is  the 
crown. 

Then  it  is  a  crown  of  glory.  What  is  glory  ?  The 
splendour  of  God's  character  manifested  to  His 
creatures  and  become  the  object  of  their  admiration. 
That  is  the  full  meaning  of  glory  in  the  Old  and  in  the 
New  Testament.  And  all  that  is  transferred  to  those 
who  cleave  to  Him  here  and  are  perfected  yonder. 
There  will  be  complete  perfection  of  nature.  'We 
shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is.'  The 
inmost  and  doepest  beauty  of  redeemed  and  perfected 
souls  will  then  be  capable  of  being  manifested  fully. 
Here  it  struggles  for  expression,  and  what  we  seem  to 
be,  though  it  is  often  better,  is  just  as  often  much 


V.  12]  THE  CROWN  373 

worse  than  we  really  are.  But  there  we  shall  be  able 
to  show  ourselves  as  what  in  our  deepest  hearts  we 
are.  For  the  servants  who,  girt  with  priestly  vest- 
ments, do  Ilim  sacerdotal  service  in  the  highest 
temple,  have  His  name  blazing  upon  their  foreheads, 
and  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  their 
Father.  The  redeemed  souls,  transmuted  into  the 
likeness  of  the  Lord,  and  made  visible  in  the  flashing 
splendour  of  their  gentle  radiance,  shall  be  beheld  with 
the  wonder  with  which  all  other  creatures  gaze  on 
Him  who  is  the  Lord  and  Source  of  their  purity,  and 
'  if  so  be  that  we  suffer  with  Him,  we  shall  be  also 
glorified  together.' 

But  why  speak  of  what  we  know  as  little  about  as 
the  unborn  child  does  of  the  world,  or  the  caterpillar 
of  its  future  life  when  winged  and  painted  and  bask- 
ing in  the  sunshine  ?  Let  us  bow  before  the  ignorance 
which  is  the  prophecy  and  pledge  of  the  transcendent 
greatness  that  lies  behind  the  veil,  and  say,  '  It  is 
enough  for  the  servant  that  he  be  as  his  Lord.' 

III.  Now,  thirdly,  note  the  conditions  of  the  crown. 

These  are  variously  put  with  a  rich  variety.  Paul 
speaks,  as  you  remember,  of  '  the  crown  of  righteous- 
ness,' by  which  he  means  to  imply  that  on  impure 
brows  it  can  never  sit,  and  that,  if  it  could,  it  would 
be  there  a  crown  of  poisoned  thorns.  None  but  the 
righteous  can  wear  it.  That  is  the  first  and  prime 
indispensable  condition.  But  then  there  are  others 
stated  in  the  other  passages  to  which  we  have  referred. 
The  wrestler  must  'strive  lawfully,'  according  to  the 
rules  of  the  arena,  if  he  is  to  be  crowned.  The  man 
that  is  tried  must  'endure  his  temptation,'  and  come 
out  of  it  '  proved '  thereby,  as  gold  is  tried  by  the  fire. 
The  martyr  must  be  willing  to  die,  if  need  bo,  for 


374  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

fidelity  to  bis  Master.  We  must '  hold  fast  that  which 
we  have'  if  we  are  ever  to  win  that  which,  as  yet,  wo 
have  not,  even  the  crown  that  ought  to  be  ours,  and 
so  is  by  anticipation  called  ours. 

But  two  of  the  passages  to  which  I  have  referred 
add  yet  another  kind  of  condition  and  requirement. 
Paul  says,  '  Not  to  me  only,  but  to  all  them  also  that 
love  His  appearing ' ;  and  James  here  says  that  the  man 
who  is  tried  will  receive  the  crown  'which  the  Lord 
hath  promised  to  them  that  love  Him.'  So  it  is  not 
difficult  to  make  out  the  sequence  of  these  several 
conditions.  Fundamental  to  all  is  love  to  Jesus  Christ. 
That  is  the  beginning  of  everything.  Then,  built  upon 
that,  for  His  dear  sake,  the  manful  wrestling  with 
temptations  and  with  difficulties,  long-breathed  run- 
ning, and  continual  aspiration  after  the  things  that 
are  before,  fidelity,  if  need  be,  unto  death,  and  a  grim 
tenacity  of  grasp  of  the  truth  and  the  blessings  already 
bestowed.  These  things  are  needed.  And  then  as 
the  result  of  the  love  that  grasps  Christ  with  hooks 
of  flesh,  which  are  stronger  than  hooks  of  steel,  and 
will  not  let  Him  go,  and  as  the  result  of  the  efforts 
and  struggles  and  discipline  which  flow  from  that  love 
to  Him,  there  must  be  a  righteousness  which  conforms 
to  His  image  and  is  the  gift  of  His  indwelling  Spirit. 
These  are  the  conditions  on  which  the  crown  may 
be  ours. 

Such  righteousness  may  be  imperfect  here  upon 
earth,  and  when  we  look  upon  ourselves  we  may  feel 
as  if  there  were  nothing  in  us  that  deserves,  or  that 
even  can  bear,  the  crown  to  be  laid  upon  our  brows. 
But  if  the  process  have  been  begun  here  by  love  and 
struggling,  and  reception  of  His  grace,  death  will 
perfect  it.     But  death  will  not  begin  it  if  it  have  not 


vr.l2]  THE  CRO\yN  875 

been  commenced  in  life.  We  may  liope  that  if  wo 
have  our  faces  set  towards  the  Lord,  and  our  poor 
imperfect  steps  have  been  stumbling  towards  Him 
through  all  the  confusions  and  mists  of  flesh  and 
sense,  our  course  will  be  wonderfully  straightened  and 
accelerated  when  we  '  shuffle  off  this  mortal  coil.'  But 
there  is  no  sanctifying  in  death  for  a  man  who  is  not 
a  Christian  whilst  he  lives,  and  the  crown  will  only 
come  to  those  whose  righteousness  began  with  repent- 
ance, and  was  made  complete  by  passing  through  the 
dark  valley  of  death. 

IV.  Lastly,  note  the  giver  of  the  crown. 

'Which  the  Lord  hath  promised,' '  which  the  Lord, 
the  righteous  Judge,  will  give  me  in  that  day.'  '  I  will 
give  him  a  crown  of  life.'  So  Jesus  Christ,  as  Judge, 
as  Brother,  as  Distributer  of  the  eternal  conditions  of 
men,  as  indwelling  in  us  and  making  us  sharers  of  all 
that  is  His,  bestows  upon  His  servants  the  crown. 
Yet,  let  us  remember  that  He  does  not  give  it  in  such 
a  fashion  as  that  the  gift  may  be  taken  once  for  all 
and  worn  thereafter,  independent  of  Him.  It  must  be 
a  continual  communication,  all  through  eternal  ages, 
and  right  on  into  the  ab^'sses  of  celestial  glories — a 
continual  communication  from  His  cA^er-opened  hand. 
The  energy  of  a  present  Christ  bestowing  at  the 
moment  (if  there  be  moments  in  that  dim  future)  is 
the  condition  of  the  crown's  continued  gleaming  on 
brows  that  have  worn  it  for  ages,  to  which  geological 
periods  are  but  as  the  beat  of  a  pendulum.  Like  the 
rainbow  that  continues  permanently  above  the  eater- 
act,  and  yet  at  each  moment  is  fed  by  new  spray  from 
the  stream,  so  the  crown  upon  our  heads  will  be  the 
consequence  of  the  continual  influx  into  redeemed 
souls  of  the  very  life  of  Christ  Himself. 


376  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

So,  dear  brethren,  all  ends  as  all  begins,  with  cleav- 
ing to  Him,  and  drawing  from  His  fulness  grace 
whilst  we  need  grace,  and  glory  when  we  are  fit  for 
glory.  Strength  for  the  conflict  and  the  reward  of 
the  victory  come  from  the  same  hand,  and  are  ours 
on  the  same  conditions.  He  who  covers  our  heads  in 
the  day  of  battle  is  He  who  wreathes  the  garland  on 
the  conqueror's  brow  and  keeps  its  flowers  unfading 
through  eternal  ages.  '  On  His  head  are  many  crowns,' 
which  He  bestows  upon  His  followers,  and  all  the 
heaven  of  His  servants  is  their  share  in  His  heaven. 
If,  then,  we  love  Him,  if  for  His  dear  sake  we  manfully 
strive  in  the  conflict,  patiently  accept  the  ministry  of 
trial,  discipline  ourselves  as  athletes  are  willing  to  do 
for  a  poor  parsley  wreath,  hold  fast  that  which  we 
have,  and  by  faith,  effort,  and  prayer,  receive  of  His 
righteousness  here,  then  the  grave  will  be  but  as  the 
dressing-room  where  we  shall  put  off  our  soiled 
raiment  and  on  our  white  robe ;  and  thus  apparelled, 
even  we,  unworthy,  shall  hear  from  Him,  '  I  will  make 
thee  ruler  over  many  things;  enter  thou  into  the  joy 
of  thy  Lord.' 


'FIRST-FRUITS  OF  HIS  CREATURES' 

'»  I  »  That  we  should  bo  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of  His  creatures.'— James  i.  18. 

According  to  the  Levitical  ceremonial,  the  first  sheaf 
of  the  new  crop,  accompanied  with  sacrifice,  was  pre- 
sented in  the  Temple  on  the  day  after  the  Passover 
Sabbath.  No  part  of  the  harvest  was  permitted  to  be 
used  for  food  until  after  this  acknowledgment,  that  all 
had  come  from  God  and  belonged  to  Him.  A  similar 
law  applied  to  the  first-born  of  men  and  of  cattle.   Both 


V.18]  FIRST-FRUITS  377 

were  regarded  as  in  a  special  sense  consecrated  to  and 
belonging  to  God. 

Now,  in  the  New  Testament,  both  these  ideas  of  '  the 
first-born '  and  *  the  first-fruits,'  which  run  as  you  see 
parallel  in  some  important  aspects,  are  transferred  to 
Jesus  Christ.  He  is  '  become  the  first-fruits  of  them 
that  slept';  and  it  was  no  mere  accidental  coincidence 
that,  in  this  character.  He  rose  from  the  dead  on  the 
day  on  which,  according  to  the  law,  the  sheaf  was  to 
be  presented  in  the  Temple.  In  His  case  the  ideas 
attached  to  the  expression  are  not  only  that  of  con- 
secration, but  that  of  being  the  first  of  a  series,  which 
owes  its  existence  to  Him.  He  makes  men  '  the  many 
brethren,'  of  whom  He  is  '  the  first-born  ' ;  and  He,  by 
the  overflowing  power  of  His  life,  raises  from  the  dead 
the  whole  harvest  of  which  He  is  the  first-fruits. 

Then  that  which  Jesus  Christ  is,  primarily  and 
originally,  all  those  who  love  Him  and  trust  Him  are 
secondarily  and  by  derivation  from  Himself.  Thus, 
both  these  phrases  are  farther  transferred  in  the  New 
Testament  to  Christian  people.  They  are  the  'first- 
fruits  unto  God  and  the  Lamb ' ;  or,  as  my  text  has  it 
here,  with  a  qualifying  word,  'a  kind  of  first-fruits'; 
which  expresses  at  once  a  metaphor  and  the  derivation 
of  the  character.  They  are  also  'the  Church  of  the 
first-born  whose  names  are  written  in  heaven.' 

So,  then,  in  this  text  we  have  contained  some  great 
ideas  as  to  God's  purpose  in  drawing  us  to  Himself. 
And  I  want  you  to  look  at  these  for  a  moment  or 
two. 

I.  First,  then,  God's  purpose  for  Christians  is  that 
they  should  be  consecrated  to  Him. 

The  sheaf  was  presented  before  God  in  the  sym- 
bolical   ceremonial,    as    an    acknowledgment    of    His 


378  JAMES  [cH.i. 

ownership  of  it,  and  of  all  the  wide-waving  harvest. 
It  thereby  became  His  in  a  special  sense.  In  like 
manner,  the  purpose  of  God  in  bestowing  on  us  the 
wondrous  gift  of  a  regeneration  and  new  life  by  the 
word  is  that  we  should  be  His,  yielding  to  Ilim  the  life 
which  He  gives,  and  all  that  we  are,  in  thankful  recog- 
nition and  joyful  consecration. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  about  consecration  in  these 
days.  Let  us  understand  what  consecration  means. 
There  is  an  inward  and  an  outward  aspect  of  it.  In 
the  inward  aspect  it  means  an  entire  devotion  of  my- 
self, down  to  the  very  roots  of  my  being,  to  God  as 
Lord  and  Owner. 

Man's  natural  tendency  is  to  make  himself  his  own 
centre,  to  live  for  self  and  by  self.  And  the  whole 
purpose  of  the  gospel  is  to  decentralise  him  and  to 
give  him  a  new  centre,  even  God,  for  whom,  and  by 
whom,  and  with  whom,  and  in  whom  the  Christian  man 
is  destined,  by  his  very  calling,  to  live. 

Now,  how  can  an  inward  devotion  and  consecration 
of  myself  be  possible  ?  Only  by  one  way,  and  that  is 
by  the  way  of  love  that  delights  to  give.  The  yielding 
of  the  human  spirit  to  the  divine  is  only  accomplished 
through  that  sweet  medium  of  love.  Self-surrender  is 
the  giving  up  of  self  at  the  bidding  of  love  to  Him  to 
whom  my  heart  cleaves. 

The  will  will  yield  itself.  There  will  be  no  mur- 
muring at  hard  providences ;  no  regrets  darkening  a 
whole  life  and  paralysing  duty,  and  blinding  to  bless- 
ings, by  reason  of  the  greatest  sorrow  which  He  may 
have  sent.  The  will  will  yield  in  submission ;  the  will 
will  yield  in  obedience.  According  to  the  dreadful 
metaphor  of  the  founder  of  the  Jesuits— dreadful 
when  api)lied  to  the    relations   of   a   man  to  a  man, 


r.  18]  FIRST-FRUITS  879 

but  blessed  when  applied  to  the  relation  of  a  man  to 
God,  and  of  God  to  man— I  shall  be  in  Ilis  hands  •  like 
a  stajBP'  in  the  hand  of  a  man,  only  to  be  used  as  He 
desires. 

Consecration  means  self-surrender;  and  the  fortress 
of  self  is  in  the  will,  and  the  way  of  self-surrender  is 
the  flowery  path  of  love. 

To  take  the  other  metaphor  of  Scripture,  by  which 
the  same  idea  is  expressed— the  consecration  which  wo 
owe  to  God,  and  which  is  His  design  in  all  His  dealings 
with  us  in  the  gospel,  will  be  like  that  of  a  priestly 
offering  of  sacrifice,  and  the  sacrifice  is  ourselves. 

So  much  for  the  inward ;  what  about  the  outward  ? 
All  capacities,  opportunities,  possessions,  are  to  bo 
yielded  up  to  Him  as  utterly  as  Christ  has  yielded 
Himself  to  us.  We  are  to  live  for  Him  and  work  for 
Him ;  and  set,  as  our  prime  object,  conspicuously  and 
constantly  before  us,  and  to  be  reached  towards 
through  all  the  trivialities  of  daily  duty,  and  the 
common-places  of  recurring  tasks,  the  one  thing,  to 
glorify  God  and  to  please  Him.  Consecration  means 
the  utter  giving  of  myself  away,  in  the  inmost 
sanctuary  of  the  spirit.  And  it  means  the  resolute 
devotion  of  all  that  I  have  and  all  that  I  am  in  the 
outgoings  of  daily  life  to  His  service  and  to  His 
praise. 

That  is  what  God  meant  for  you  and  me  when  He 
made  us  Christians ;  that  was  His  design  when  He  sent 
His  Son.  And  we  thwart  and  counter-work  Him,  just 
in  the  measure  in  which  we  still  make  ourselves  our 
own  centre,  our  wills  our  own  law,  and  our  well-being 
our  own  aim. 

Now,  remember,  such  consecration  is  salvation.  For 
the  opposite  thing,  the  living  to  self,  is  damnation  and 


380  JAMES  [en.  i. 

hell  and  destruction.  And  whosoever  is  thus  conse- 
crated to  God  is  in  process  of  being  saved.  The  rela- 
tion between  the  two  ideas  is  not,  as  it  often  is  put, 
that  you  are  to  be  saved  that  you  may  be  consecrated ; 
but,  you  are  being  saved  in  being  consecrated.  And 
the  measure  in  which  we  have  ceased  to  be  devoted  to 
ourselves,  and  are  devoted  to  Him,  is  the  accurate 
measure  in  which  we  have  received  the  true  salvation 
that  is  in  Jesus  Christ. 

That  consecration  is  blessedness.  There  is  no  joy  of 
which  a  human  spirit  is  cax^able  that  is  as  lofty,  as 
rare  and  exquisite,  as  sweet  and  lasting,  as  the  joy  of 
giving  itself  away  to  Him  who  has  given  Himself  for 
us.  And  such  consecration  is  the  true  possession  of 
what  we  give,  and  the  'only  way  of  really  owning  our- 
selves or  our  possessions.  'He  that  lovetli  himself 
shall  lose  himself,'  and  he  that  gives  himself  away  to 
God,  a  weak,  sinful  man,  gets  himself  back  from  God, 
a  hero,  strong,  and  a  saint. 

Such  consecration,  which  is  the  root  of  all  blessed- 
ness, and  the  true  way  of  entering  into  the  possession 
of  all  possessions,  is  only  possessible  in  the  degree  in 
which  we  subject  ourselves  to  the  influence  of  these 
mighty  acts  which  God  has  done  in  order  to  secure  it. 
Our  yielding  of  ourselves  to  Him  is  only  possible  when 
we  are  quite  sure  that  He  has  given  Himself  to  us. 
Our  love  which  melts  us,  and  bows  us  in  willing,  joy- 
ful surrender,  can  only  be  the  echo  of  Ilis  love.  The 
pattern  is  set  us  in  the  Christ,  and  set  us  that  we  may 
imitate  it,  and  we  imitate  it  in  the  measure  in  which 
we  lie  exposed  to  its  mighty  power.  'He  gave  Himself 
for  us,  that  He  might  purchase  for  Himself  a  people 
for  His  possession.'  My  surrender  is  but  the  echo  of 
the  thunder  of  His ;  my  surrender  is  but  the  flash  on 


V.  18]  FIRST-FRUITS  381 

the  polished  mirror  which  gives  back  the  siinhcam  that 
smites  it.  We  yield  ourselves  to  God,  when  we  realise 
that  Christ  has  given  Himself  for  us. 

Christian  men  and  women,  behold  your  destiny ! 
God's  purpose  concerning  you  is  that  you  might  be 
not  your  own,  because  you  are  bought  with  a  price. 
And  measure  against  that  mighty  purpose  the  halting 
obedience,  the  reluctant  wills,  the  half-and-half  sur- 
render which  is  no  surrender  at  all,  which  make  up 
the  lives  of  the  average  Christians  among  us,  and  see 
whether  any  of  us  can  feel  that  the  divine  purpose  is 
accomplished  in  us,  or  that  we  have  paid  what  we  owe 
to  our  God. 

II.  Secondly,  my  text  suggests  that  God's  purpose 
for  Christians  is  that  they  should  be  specimens  and 
beginnings  of  a  great  harvest. 

The  sheaf  that  was  carried  into  the  Temple  showed 
what  sun  and  rain  and  the  sweet  skyey  influences  had 
been  able  to  do  on  a  foot  or  two  of  ground,  and  it 
prophesied  of  the  acres  of  golden  grain  that  would  one 
day  be  garnered  in  the  barns.  And  so,  Christian  men 
and  women  to-day,  and  even  more  eminently  at  that 
time  when  this  letter  was  written,  are  meant  to  be  the 
first  small  example  of  a  great  harvest  that  is  to  follow. 
The  design  that  God  had  in  view  in  our  being 
Christianised  is  that  we  should  stand  here  as  specimens 
of  what  He  means  the  world  to  be,  and  as  witnesses 
of  what  He,  by  the  gospel,  is  able  to  make  men. 

If  we  strip  that  thought  of  its  metaphor  it  just  comes 
to  this,  that  if  Christianity  has  been  able  to  take  one 
man,  pick  him  out  of  the  mud  and  mire  of  sense 
and  self,  and  turn  him  into  a  partially  and  increasingly 
consecrated  servant  of  God,  it  can  do  that  for 
anybody. 


882  JAiMES  [CH.  I. 

The  little  sheaf,  though  there  be  but  a  handful  of 
nodding  heads  in  it,  is  a  sure  pledge  of  the  harvest  on 
the  great  pi^iirie  yonder,  as  yet  untilled  and  unsown, 
which  will  yet  bear  like  fruit  to  His  praise  and 
honour. 

•We  have  all  of  us  one  human  heart.'  Whatever 
may  be  men's  idiosyncrasies  or  diversities  of  culture,  of 
character,  of  condition,  of  climate,  of  chronology,  they 
have  all  the  same  deep  primary  wants,  and  the  deepest 
of  them  all  is  concord  and  fellowship  with  God.  And 
the  path  to  that  is  by  faith  in  His  dear  Son,  who  has 
given  Himself  for  us.  If,  then,  that  faith  in  one  case 
has  given  to  a  man  the  satisfaction  of  that  which  all 
men  are  hungering  for,  whether  they  know  it  or  not, 
and  are  restless  and  miserable  till  they  find  it,  then 
there  is  document  and  evidence  that  this  gospel,  which 
can  do  that  for  the  individual,  can  do  it  for  the  race. 
And  so  the  first-fruits  are  the  pledge  and  the  prophecy 
of  the  harvest. 

What  a  harvest  is  dimly  hinted  at  in  these  words  of 
my  text ;  the  *  first-fruits  of  His  creatures ! '  That  goes 
even  wider  than  humanity,  and  stretches  away  out 
into  the  dim  distances,  concerning  which  we  can  speak 
with  but  bated  breath ;  but  at  least  it  seems  to  suggest 
to  us  that,  in  accordance  with  other  teaching  of  the 
New  Testament,  '  the  whole  creation  '  which  *  groaneth 
and  travaileth  together  in  pain  until  now,'  will,  some- 
how or  other,  be  brought  into  the  liberty  and  the  glory 
of  the  children  of  God,  and,  as  humble  waiters  and 
attenders  upon  the  kings  who  are  the  priests  of  the 
Most  High,  will  participate  in  the  power  of  the 
redemption.  At  all  events,  there  seem  to  me  to  gleam 
dimly  through  such  words  as  those  of  my  text,  the 
great  prospects  of  a  redeemed  humanity,  of  a  renewed 


V.  18]  FIRST-FRUITS  883 

earth,  of  a  sinless  universe,  in  which  God  in  Christ 
shall  be  all  in  all. 

The  possibility  and  the  certainty  of  that  issue  lie  in 
this  comparatively  humble  fact,  that  some  handful  of 
poor  men  have  found  in  Jesus  Christ  that  which  their 
finding  of  it  in  Hini  manifests  to  them,  is  the  elixir 
vitce  and  the  hope  of  the  world. 

You  are  meant  to  be  specimens,  exhibitions  of  what 
God  intends  for  mankind,  and  of  what  the  gospel  can 
do  for  the  world.  Do  you  think,  Christian  men  and 
women,  that  anybody,  looking  at  you,  will  have  a 
loftier  idea  of  the  possibilities  of  human  nature, 
and  of  the  potentialities  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ?  Because  if  they  will  not,  then  you  have 
thwarted  your  Father's  design  when  He  sent  you  His 
Son. 

III.  Lastly,  my  text  suggests  that  God's  purpose  for 
Christians  is  that  they  should  help  the  harvest. 

That  does  not  lie  in  the  Levitical  ceremonial  of  the 
sheaf  of  the  first-fruits,  of  course.  Though  even  there, 
I  may  remind  you,  that  the  thing  presented  on  the 
altar  carried  in  itself  the  possibilities  of  future  growth, 
and  that  the  wheaten  ear  has  not  only  '  bread  for  the 
eater  but  seed  for  the  sower,'  and  is  the  parent  of 
another  harvest.  But  the  idea  that  the  first-fruits  are 
not  merely  first  in  series,  but  that  they  originate  the 
series  of  which  they  are  the  first,  lies  in  the  trans- 
ference of  the  terms  and  the  ideas  to  Jesus  Christ ;  for, 
as  I  pointed  out  to  you  in  my  introductory  remarks, 
when  He  is  called  '  the  first-fruits  of  them  that  slept,' 
it  is  implied  that  He,  by  His  power,  will  wake  the 
whole  multitude  of  the  sleepers ;  and  when  it  speaks 
of  Him  as  'the  first-born  among  many  brethren,' it  is 
implied  that  He,  by  the  communication  of  His  life,  will 


881  JAMES  [en.  I. 

give  life,  and  a  fraternal  life,  to  the  many  brethren 
who  will  follow  Him. 

And  so,  in  like  manner,  God's  purpose  in  making  us 
*  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of  His  creatures  '  is  not  merely 
our  consecration  and  the  exhibition  of  a  specimen  of 
His  power,  and  the  pledge  and  prophecy  of  the  harvest, 
but  it  is  that  from  us  there  shall  come  influences  which 
shall  realise  the  harvest  of  which  our  own  Christianity 
is  the  pledge  and  prophecy.  That  is  to  say,  all 
Christian  men  and  women  are  Christians  in  order  that 
they  may  make  more  Christians. 

The  capacity,  the  obligation,  the  impulse,  are  all 
given  in  the  fact  of  receiving  Jesus  Christ  for  our- 
selves. If  we  have  Him  we  can  preach  Him,  if  we 
have  Him  we  ought  to  preach  Him,  if  we  have  Him 
in  any  deep  and  real  possession,  we  must  preach  Him, 
and  His  words  will  be  like  a  fire  in  our  bones,  if  we 
forbear ;  and  we  shall  not  be  able  to  stay. 

•  Heaven  doth  with  us  as  we  with  torches  do, 
Not  light  them  for  themselves.* 

"What  do  you  get  Christ  for?  To  feed  upon  Him. 
Yes!  But  to  carry  the  bread  to  all  the  hungry  as 
well. 

Do  not  say  you  cannot.  You  can  talk  about  any- 
thing that  interests  you.  You  can  speak  about  any- 
thing that  you  know.  And  are  your  lips  to  be  always 
closed  about  Him  who  has  given  Himself  for  you? 
Do  not  say  that  you  need  special  gifts  for  it.  Wo  do 
need  special  gifts  for  the  more  public  and  conspicuous 
forms  of  ^^at  we  call  preaching  nowadays.  But  any 
man  and  any  woman  that  has  Christ  in  his  or  her 
heart  can  go  to  another  and  say,  *We  have  found 
the  Messiah,'  and  that  is  the  best  thing  to  say. 


V.18]  FIRST-FRUITS  385 

You  ought  to  preach  Him.  Capacity  involves  obliga- 
tion. To  have  anything,  in  this  world  of  needy  men 
who  are  all  knit  together  in  the  solidarity  of  one 
family — to  have  any  anything  implies  that  you  impart 
it.  That  is  the  true  communism  of  Christianity,  to 
be  applied  not  only  to  wealth  but  to  everything,  all 
our  possessions,  all  our  knowledge,  all  our  influence. 
We  get  them  that  they  may  fructify  through  us  to 
all;  and  if  wo  keep  them,  we  shall  be  sure  to  spoil 
them.  The  corn  laid  up  in  storehouses  is  gnawed  by 
rats,  and  marred  by  weevils.  If  you  want  it  to  be 
healthy,  and  your  own  possession  of  it  to  increase,  put 
it  into  your  seed-basket ;  and  '  in  the  morning  sow  thy 
seed,  and  in  the  evening  withhold  not  thy  hand,'  and 
it  will  come  back  to  thee,  *  seed  for  the  sower  and 
bread  for  the  eater.' 

Now  this  is  a  matter  of  individual  responsibility. 
You  cannot  get  rid  of  it.  Every  Christian  has  the 
obligation  laid  upon  himself,  and  every  Christian  man 
has  some  sphere  in  which  he  can  discharge  it,  and  in 
which,  if  he  discharge  it  not,  he  is  a  dumb  dog  lying 
down  and  loving  to  slumber.  Oh!  I  wish  I  could  get 
into  you  tongue-tied,  cowardly  Christian  men  and 
women  who  never  open  your  mouths  to  a  soul  for  the 
Master's  sake,  this  conviction,  that  you  are  thwarting 
God's  purposes,  and  that  the  blood  of  souls  lies  at  your 
door  by  reason  of  your  guilty  silence. 

If  you  believe  these  things  which  I  have  been  saying 
to  you,  the  application  follows.  '  The  field  is  the  world.' 
And  neither  criticisms  about  missionary  methods  nor 
allegations  of  the  superior  claims  of  the  little  bit  of 
the  field  round  about  your  own  doors  are  a  suflicient 
vindication  before  God,  though  they  may  be  an  excuse 
before    men,    for   tepid    interest    in,    or    indifference 

2b 


386  JAMES  [CH.  i. 

to,  or  lack  of  help  of,  any  great  missionary  enter- 
prise. 

We  have  to  sow  beside  all  waters ;  and  if  any  men 
iji  the  world  were  ever  debtors  both  to  the  Greek  and 
to  the  barbarian,  both  to  the  Englishman  and  the 
foreigner,  it  is  the  members  of  this  great  nation  of 
ours,  which,  'as  a  nest  hath  gathered  the  riches 
of  the  nations,  and  there  were  none  that  peeped 
or  muttered  or  moved  the  wing.'  We  are  debtors  to 
the  heathen  world,  because  whether  we  will  or  no  we 
come  into  contact  with  heathen  lands;  and  whether 
we  take  Bibles  or  not,  our  countrymen  will  take  rum 
and  gunpowder,  and  send  men  to  the  devil  if  we  do 
not  try  to  draw  them  to  God.  We  are  debtors  to  them 
in  a  thousand  cases  by  injuries  inflicted.  We  are 
debtors  by  benefits  received;  and  we  are  debtors 
most  of  all  because  Christ  died  for  them  and  for  us 
equally. 

And  so,  I  beseech  you,  give  us  your  help,  and 
remember  in  giving  it  that '  God  of  His  own  will  hath 
begotten  us  by  the  word  of  truth,  that  we  should  be  a 
kind  of  first-fruits  of  His  creatures.* 


THE  PERFECT  LAW  AND  ITS  DOERS 

'  Wh080  looketh  into  the  perfect  law  of  liberty,  and  continucth  therein,  hebeing 
not  a  forgetful  hearer,  but  a  doer  of  the  work,  this  man  shall  bo  blessed  in  his 
deed.'— James  1.  25. 

An  old  tradition  tells  us  that  James,  who  was  probably 
the  writer  of  this  letter,  continued  in  the  practice  of 
Jewish  piety  all  his  life.  He  was  surnamcd  'the  Just,' 
He  lived  the  life  of  a  Nazarite.  He  was  even  admitted 
into  the  sanctuary  of  the  Temple,  and  there  spent  so 


V.25]  THE  PERFECT  LAW  387 

much  of  his  time  in  praying  for  the  forgiveness  of  the 
people  that,  in  the  vivid  language  of  the  old  writer,  his 
'  knees  were  hard  and  worn  like  a  camel's.'  To  such  a 
man  the  Gospel  would  naturally  present  itself  as  'a 
law,'  which  word  expressed  the  highest  form  of  revela- 
tion with  which  he  was  familiar ;  and  to  him  the  glory 
of  Christ's  message  would  be  that  it  was  the  perfecting 
of  an  earlier  utterance,  moving  on  the  same  plane  as 
it  did,  but  infinitely  greater. 

Now  that,  of  course,  is  somewhat  different  from  the 
point  of  view  from  which,  for  instance,  Paul  regards 
the  relation  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Law.  To  him  they 
are  rather  antitheses.  He  conceived  mainly  of  the 
law  as  a  system  of  outward  observances,  incapable  of 
fulfilment,  and  valuable  as  impressing  upon  men  the 
consciousness  of  sin. 

But,  though  there  is  diversity,  there  is  no  contra- 
diction, any  more  than  there  is  between  the  two 
pictures  in  a  stereoscope,  which,  united,  represent  one 
solid  reality.  The  two  men  simply  regard  the  subject 
from  slightly  different  angles.  Paul  would  have  said 
that  the  gospel  was  the  perfection  of  the  law,  as 
indeed  he  does  say  that  by  faith  we  do  not  make  void, 
but  establish,  the  law.  And  James  would  have  said 
that  the  law,  in  Paul's  sense,  was  a  yoke  of  bondage, 
as  indeed  he  does  say  in  my  text,  that  the  gospel,  in 
contrast  with  the  earlier  revelation,  is  the  law  of 
liberty. 

And  so  the  two  men  complement  and  do  not 
contradict  each  other.  In  like  manner,  the  earnest 
urging  of  work  and  insisting  upon  conduct,  wliich  are 
the  keynote  of  this  letter,  are  no  contradiction  of  Paul. 
The  one  writer  begins  at  a  later  point  than  the  other. 
Paul  is  a  preacher  of  faith,  but  of  faith  which  works 


388  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

by  love.  James  is  the  preacher  of  works,  but  of  works 
which  are  the  fruit  of  faith. 

There  are  three  things  here  on  which  I  touch  now. 
First,  the  perfect  law ;  second,  the  doers  of  the  perfect 
law ;  and  third,  the  blessedness  of  the  doers  of  the 
perfect  law. 

I.  First,  then,  the  perfect  law. 

I  need  not  dwell  further  upon  James's  conception 
of  the  gospel  as  being  a  law;  the  authoritative 
standard  and  rule  of  human  conduct.  Let  me  remind 
you  how,  in  every  part  of  the  revelation  of  divine 
truth  contained  in  the  gospel,  there  is  a  direct  moral 
and  practical  bearing.  No  word  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  given  to  us  only  in  order  that  we  may  know 
truth,  but  all  in  order  that  we  may  do  it.  Every 
part  of  it  palpitates  with  life,  and  is  meant  to  regulate 
conduct.  There  are  plenty  of  truths  of  which  it  does 
not  matter  whether  a  man  believes  them  or  not,  in  so 
far  as  his  conduct  is  concerned.  Mathematical  truth 
or  scientific  truth  leaves  conduct  unaffected.  But  no 
man  can  believe  the  principles  that  are  laid  down  in 
the  New  Testament,  and  the  truths  that  are  unveiled 
there,  without  their  laying  a  masterful  grip  upon  his 
life,  and  influencing  all  that  he  is. 

And  let  me  remind  you,  too,  how  in  the  very  central 
fact  of  the  gospel  there  lies  the  most  stringent  rule  of 
life.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Pattern,  and  from  those 
gentle  lips  which  say,  '  If  ye  love  Me,  keep  My 
commandments,'  law  sounds  more  imperatively  than 
from  all  the  thunder  and  trumpets  of  Sinai. 

Let  me  remind  you,  too,  how  in  the  great  act  of 
redemption,  which  is  the  central  fact  of  the  New 
Testament  revelation,  there  lies  a  law  for  conduct. 
God's  love  redeeming  us  is  the  revelation  of  what  we 


V.  25]  THE  PERFECT  LAW  389 

ought  to  be,  and  the  Cross,  to  which  we  look  as  the 
refuge  from  sin  and  condemnation,  is  also  the  pattern 
for  the  life  of  every  believer.  'Be  ye  imitators  of 
God,  as  dear  children,  and  walk  in  love,  as  Christ  also 
hath  loved  us.'  A  revelation,  therefore,  of  which 
every  truth,  to  the  minutest  fibre  of  the  great  web,  has 
in  it  a  directly  practical  bearing  ;  a  revelation  which  is 
all  centred  and  focused  in  the  life  which  is  example 
because  it  is  deliverance;  a  revelation,  of  which  the 
vital  heart  is  the  redeeming  act  which  sets  before  us 
the  outlines  of  our  conduct,  and  the  model  for  our 
imitation — is  a  law  just  because  it  is  a  gospel. 

Such  thoughts  as  these  are  needful  as  a  counter- 
poise to  one-sided  views  which  otherwise  would  be 
disastrous.  God  forbid  that  the  thought  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  as  primarily  a  message  of 
reconciliation  and  pardon,  and  providing  a  means  of 
escape  from  the  frightful  consequences  of  sin,  even 
separation  from  God,  should  ever  be  put  in  the  back- 
ground !  But  the  very  ardour  and  intensity  of  man's 
recognition  of  that  as  the  first  shape  which 
Christianity  assumes  to  sinful  men,  has  sometimes 
led,  and  is  always  in  possible  danger  of  leading,  to 
putting  all  other  aspects  of  the  gospel  in  the  back- 
ground. Some  of  you,  for  instance,  when  a  preacher 
talks  to  you  about  plain  duties,  and  insists  upon 
conduct  and  practical  righteousness,  are  ready  to  say, 
'He  is  not  preaching  the  gospel.'  Neither  is  he,  if 
he  does  not  present  these  duties  and  this  practical 
righteousness  as  the  fruits  of  faith,  or  if  he  presents 
them  as  the  means  of  winning  salvation.  But  if  your 
conception  of  Christianity  has  not  grasped  it  as  being 
a  stringent  rule  of  life,  you  need  to  go  to  school  to 
James,  the  servant  of  God,  and  do  not  yet  understand 


390  JAMES  [en.  i. 

the  message  of  his  brother  Paul.  The  gospel  is  a 
Redemption.  Yes !  God  be  thanked ;  but  because  a 
Redemption,  it  is  a  Law. 

Again,  this  thought  gives  the  necessary  counter- 
poise to  the  tendency  to  substitute  the  mere 
intellectual  grasp  of  Christian  truth  for  the  practical 
doing  of  it.  There  will  be  plenty  of  orthodox 
Christians  and  theological  professors  and  students  who 
will  find  themselves,  to  their  very  great  surprise, 
amongst  the  goats  at  last.  Not  what  we  believe,  but 
what  we  do,  is  our  Christianity ;  only  the  doing  must 
be  rooted  in  belief. 

In  like  manner,  take  this  vivid  conception  of  the 
gospel  as  a  law;  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  tendency  to 
place  religion  in  mere  emotion  and  feeling.  Fire  is 
very  good,  but  its  best  purpose  is  to  get  up  steam 
which  will  drive  the  wheels  of  the  engine.  There  is  a 
vast  deal  of  lazy  selfishness  masquerading  under  the 
guise  of  sweet  and  sacred  devout  emotion.  Not  what 
we  feel,  but  what  we  do,  is  our  Christianity. 

Further,  notice  how  this  law  is  a  perfect  law. 
James's  idea,  I  suppose,  in  that  epithet,  is  not  so  much 
the  completeness  of  the  code,  or  the  loftiness  and 
absoluteness  of  the  ideal  which  is  set  forth  in  the 
gospel,  as  the  relation  between  the  law  and  its  doer. 
He  is  stating  the  same  thought  of  which  the  Psalmist 
of  old  time  had  caught  a  glimpse.  'The  law  of  the 
Lord  is  perfect,'  because  it  '  converts  the  soul.'  That 
is  to  say,  the  weakness  of  all  commandment — whether 
it  be  the  law  of  a  nation,  or  the  law  of  moral  text- 
books, or  the  law  of  conscience,  or  of  public  opinion, 
or  the  like— the  weakness  of  all  positive  statute  is  that 
it  stands  there,  over  against  a  man,  and  points  a  stony 
finger  to  the  stony  tables,  '  Thou  shalt ! '    '  Thou  shalt 


V.25]  THE  PERFECT  LAW  391 

not ! '  but  stretches  out  no  hand  to  help  us  in  keep- 
ing the  commandment.  It  simply  enjoins,  and  so  is 
weak;  like  the  proclamations  of  some  discrowned 
king  who  has  no  army  at  his  back  to  enforce  them, 
and  which  flutter  as  waste  paper  on  the  barn-doors, 
and  do  nothing  to  secure  allegiance.  But,  says  James, 
this  law  is  perfect — because  it  is  more  than  law,  and 
transcends  the  simple  function  of  command.  It  not 
only  tells  us  what  to  do,  but  it  gives  us  power  to  do 
it ;  and  that  is  what  men  want.  The  world  knows 
what  it  ought  to  do  well  enough.  There  is  no  need  for 
heaven  to  be  rent,  and  divine  voices  to  come  to  tell 
men  what  is  right  and  wrong ;  they  carry  an  all  but 
absolutely  sufficient  guide  as  to  that  within  their  own 
minds.  But  there  is  need  to  bring  them  something 
which  shall  be  more  than  commandment,  which  shall 
be  both  law  and  power,  both  the  exhibition  of  duty 
and  the  gift  of  capacity  to  discharge  it. 

The  gospel  brings  power  because  it  brings  life. 
'If  there  had  been  a  law  given  which  could  have 
given  life,  verily  righteousness  had  been  by  the  law.' 
In  the  gospel  that  desideratum  is  supplied.  Here 
is  the  law  which  vitalises  and  so  gives  power.  The 
life  which  the  gospel  brings  will  unfold  itself  after  its 
own  nature,  and  so  produce  the  obedience  which  the 
law  of  the  gospel  requires. 

Therefore,  says  James  further,  this  perfect  law  is 
freedom.  Of  course  liberty  is  not  exemption  from 
commandment,  but  the  harmony  of  will  with  com- 
mandment. "Whosoever  finds  that  what  is  his  duty 
is  his  delight  is  enfranchised.  We  are  set  at  liberty 
when  we  walk  within  the  limits  of  that  gospel ;  and 
they  who  delight  to  do  the  law  are  free  in  obedience ; 
free   from   the   tyranny  of  their  own  lusts,  passions, 


392  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

inclinations ;  free  from  the  domination  of  men  and 
opinion  and  common  customs  and  personal  habits.  All 
those  bonds  are  burnt  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  love  into 
which  they  pass;  and  where  they  walk  transfigured 
and  at  liberty,  because  they  keep  that  law.  Freedom 
comes  from  the  reception  into  the  heart  of  the  life 
whose  motions  coincide  with  the  commandments  of  the 
gospel.  Then  the  burden  that  I  carry  carries  mci 
and  the  limits  within  which  I  am  confined  are  the 
merciful  fences  put  up  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff  to  keep 
the  traveller  from  falling  over  and  being  dashed  to 
pieces  beneath. 

II.  Now  notice,  secondly,  the  doors  of  the  perfect 
law. 

James  has  a  long  prelude  before  he  comes  to  the 
doing.  Several  things  are  required  as  preliminary. 
The  first  step  is,  '  looketh  into  the  law.' 

The  word  employed  here  is  a  very  picturesque  and 
striking  one.  Its  force  may  be  seen  if  I  quote  to  you 
the  other  instances  of  its  occurrence  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  employed  in  the  accounts  of  the 
Resurrection  to  describe  the  attitude  and  action  of 
Peter,  John,  and  Mary  as  they  'stooped  down  and 
looked  into '  the  empty  sepulchre.  In  all  these  cases 
the  Revised  Version  translates  the  word  as  I  have 
just  done,  '  stooping  and  looking,'  both  acts  being 
implied  in  it.  It  is  also  employed  by  Peter  wlicn  he 
tells  us  that  the  'angels  desire  to  look  into'  the 
mysteries  of  Redemption,  in  which  saying,  perhaps, 
there  may  be  some  allusion  to  the  silent,  bending 
figures  of  the  twin  cherubim  who,  with  folded  wings 
and  fixed  eyes,  curved  themselves  above  the  morcy- 
seat,  and  looked  down  upon  that  mystery  of 
propitiating    love.      With    such    fixed    and    steadfast 


T.26]  THE  PERFECT  LAW  893 

gaze  we  must  contemplate  the  perfect  law  of  liberty 
if  we  are  ever  to  be  doers  of  the  same. 

A  second  requirement  is,  'and  continueth.'  The 
gaze  must  be,  not  only  concentrated,  but  constant,  if 
anything  is  to  come  of  it.  Old  legends  tell  that  the 
looker  into  a  magic  crystal  saw  nothing  at  first,  but, 
as  he  gazed,  there  gradually  formed  themselves  in  the 
clear  sphere  filmy  shapes,  which  grew  firmer  and 
more  distinct  until  they  stood  plain.  The  raw  hide 
dipped  into  the  vat  with  tannin  in  it,  and  at  once 
pulled  out  again,  will  never  be  turned  into  leather. 
Many  of  you  do  not  give  the  motives  and  principles 
of  the  gospel,  which  you  say  you  believe,  a  chance  of 
influencing  you,  because  so  interruptedly,  and  spasmo- 
dically, and  at  such  long  intervals,  and  for  so  few 
moments,  do  you  gaze  upon  them.  Steadfast  and 
continued  attention  is  needful  if  we  are  to  be  *  doers 
of  the  work.* 

Let  me  venture  on  two  or  three  simple  practical 
exhortations.  Cultivate  the  habit,  then,  of  con- 
templating the  central  truths  of  the  gospel,  as  the 
condition  of  receiving  in  vigour  and  fulness  the  life 
which  obeys  the  commandment.  There  is  no  mystery 
about  the  way  by  which  that  new  life  is  given  to  men. 
James  tells  us  here,  in  the  immediate  context,  how  it 
is.  He  speaks  of  'God  of  His  own  will  begetting  us 
with  the  word  of  truth ' ;  and  of  the  '  engrafted  word, 
which,'  being  engrafted,  'is  able  to  save  your  souls.' 
Get  that  word — the  principles  of  the  gospel  and  the 
truths  of  revelation,  which  are  all  enshrined  and 
incarnated  in  Jesus  Christ — into  your  minds  and 
hearts  by  continual,  believing  contemplation  of  it, 
and  the  new  life,  which  is  obedience,  will  surely 
spring.       But   if    you    look    at    the    gospel  of   your 


394  JAMES  [CH.  i. 

salvation  as  seldom  and  as  superficially  and  with  as 
passing  glances  as  so  many  of  you  expend  upon 
it,  no  wonder  that  you  are  such  weaklings  as  so  manj' 
of  you  are,  and  that  you  find  such  a  gulf  between  your 
uncircumcised  inclinations  and  the  commandment  of 
the  living  God. 

Cultivate  this  habit  of  reflective  meditation  upon 
the  truths  of  the  gospel  as  giving  you  the  pattern  of 
duty  in  a  concentrated  and  available  form.  It  is  of 
no  use  to  carry  about  a  copy  of  the  '  Statutes  at 
Large '  in  twenty  folio  volumes  in  order  to  refer  to  it 
when  difficulties  arise  and  crises  come.  We  must 
have  something  a  great  deal  more  compendious  and 
easy  of  reference  than  that.  A  man's  cabin-trunk 
must  not  be  as  big  as  a  house,  and  his  goods  must  be 
in  a  small  compass  for  his  sea  voyage.  We  have  in 
Jesus  Christ  the  '  Statutes  at  Large,'  codified  and  put 
into  a  form  which  the  poorest  and  humblest  and 
busiest  amongst  us  can  apply  directly  to  the  sudden 
emergencies  and  surprising  contingencies  of  daily  life, 
which  are  always  sprung  upon  us  when  we  do  not 
expect  them  and  demand  instantaneous  decision.  We 
have  in  Christ  the  pattern  of  all  conduct.  But  only 
those  who  have  been  accustomed  to  meditate  upon 
Him,  and  on  the  truths  that  flow  from  His  life  and 
death,  will  find  that  the  sword  is  ready  when  it  is 
needed,  and  that  the  guide  is  at  their  side  when  they 
are  in  perplexity. 

Cultivate  the  habit  of  meditating  on  the  truths  of 
the  gospel,  in  order  that  the  motives  of  conduct  may 
be  reinvigorated  and  strengthened.  And  remember 
that  only  by  long  and  habitual  abiding  in  the  secret 
place  of  the  Most  High,  and  entertaining  the  thoughts 
of  His  infinite  love  to  us,  as  the  continual  attitude  of 


V.25]  THE  PERFECT  LAW  895 

our  daily  life,  shall  we  be  able  to  respond  to  His  love 
with  the  thankfulness  which  springs  to  obedience  as 
a  delight,  and  knows  no  joy  like  the  joy  of  serving 
such  a  Friend. 

These  requirements  being  met,  next  comes  the 
doing.  There  must  precede  all  true  doing  of  the  law 
this  gazing  into  it,  steadfast  and  continued.  We  shall 
not  obey  the  commandment  except,  first,  we  have 
received  and  welcomed  the  salvation.  There  must  be, 
first,  faith,  and  then  obedience.  Only  he  who  has 
received  the  gospel  in  the  love  of  it  will  find  that  the 
gospel  is  the  law  which  regulates  his  conduct.  '  Faith 
without  works  is  dead ' ;  works  without  faith  are  root- 
less flowers,  or  bricks  hastily  and  incompletely  huddled 
together  without  the  binding  straw. 

But,  further,  the  text  suggests  that  the  natural 
crown  of  all  contemplation  and  knowledge  is  practical 
obedience.  Make  of  all  your  creed  deed.  Let  every- 
thing you  believe  be  a  principle  of  action  too ;  your 
credenda  translate  into  agenda.  And,  on  the  other 
hand,  let  every  deed  be  informed  by  your  creed,  and 
no  schism  exist  between  what  you  are  and  what  you 
believe. 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  blessedness  of  the  doers  of  the 
perfect  law.  There  is  an  echo  in  the  words  of  my  text, 
of  the  Beatitudes  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the 
form  in  which  the  gospel  was,  perhaps,  dearest  to  this 
Apostle.    He  uses  the  same  word — '  Blessed.' 

Notice  the  in ;  not  •  after,'  not  'as  a  reward  for,'  but 
'blessed  in  his  deed.'  It  is  the  saying  of  the  Psalmist 
over  again,  whose  words  we  have  already  seen  partly 
reproduced  in  the  former  portion  of  this  text,  who,  in 
the  same  great  psalm,  says :  *  In  keeping  Thy  com- 
mandments there  is  great  reward.'    The  rewards  of 


896  JAMES  [CH.  i. 

this  law  are  not  arbitrarily  bestowed,  separately  from 
the  act  of  obedience,  by  the  will  of  the  Judge,  but  the 
deeds  of  obedience  automatically  bring  the  blessedness. 
This  world  is  not  so  constituted  as  that  outward 
rewards  certainly  follow  on  inward  goodness.  Few  of 
its  prizes  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  saints.  But  men  are  so 
constituted  as  that  obedience  is  its  own  reward.  There 
is  no  delight  so  deep  and  true  as  the  delight  of  doing 
the  will  of  Him  whom  we  love.  There  is  no  blessed- 
ness like  that  of  an  increasing  communion  with  God, 
and  of  the  clearer  perception  of  His  will  and  mind 
which  follow  obedience  as  surely  as  the  shadow  does 
the  sunshine.  There  is  no  blessedness  like  the  glow  of 
approving  conscience,  the  reflection  of  the  smile  on 
Christ's  face. 

To  have  the  heart  in  close  communion  with  the 
very  Fountain  of  all  good,  and  the  will  in  harmony 
with  the  will  of  the  best  Beloved;  to  hear  the  Voice 
that  is  dearest  of  all,  ever  saying,  'This  is  the  way, 
walk  ye  in  it ' ;  to  feel  *  a  spirit  in  my  feet ' 
impelling  me  upon  that  road;  to  know  that  all  my 
petty  deeds  are  made  great,  and  my  stained  offerings 
hallowed  by  the  altar  on  which  they  are  honoured  to 
lie ;  and  to  be  conscious  of  fellowship  with  the  Friend 
of  my  soul  increased  by  obedience  ;  this  is  to  taste  the 
keenest  joy  and  good  of  life,  and  he  who  is  thus 
♦blessed  in  his  deed'  need  never  fear  that  that  blessed- 
ness shall  be  taken  away,  nor  sorrow  though  other  joys 
be  few  and  griefs  be  many. 

But,  remember,  first  believe,  then  work.  We  must 
begin  where  Paul  told  the  Philippian  gaoler  to  begin — 
•Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shnlt  be 
saved' — if  we  are  to  end  where  James  leads  us.  Do 
not  begin  your  building  at  the  roof,  but  put  in  the 


V.25]  PURE  WORSHIP  897 

foundations  deep  in  penitence  and  faith.    And  then« 
let  every  man  take  heed  how  ho  buildeth  thereon. 


PURE  WORSHIP 

•Pure  religion  and  nndeflled  before  God  and  the  Father  is  this.  To  visit  the 
fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the 
world.'— James  L  27. 

This  is  a  text  which  is  more  often  quoted  and  used 
than  understood.  The  word  *  religion '  has  somewhat 
shifted  its  meaning  from  that  which  it  bore  at  the  time 
of  our  translation.  We  understand  by  it  one  of  two 
things.  For  instance,  when  we  speak  of  the  Moham- 
medan or  the  Brahminical  religion  we  mean  the 
body  of  beliefs,  principles,  and  ceremonies  which 
go  to  make  up  an  objective  whole.  When  we  speak 
of  an  individual's  religion  we  generally  mean,  not  that 
which  he  grasps,  but  the  act,  on  his  part,  of  grasp- 
ing the  consciousness  of  dependence,  the  attitude  of 
reverence  and  aspiration  and  love  and  its  consequences 
within.  But  when  our  translation  was  made  the  word 
meant  rather  worship  than  religion,  or,  to  use  an 
expression  which  has  been  recently  naturalised  among 
us,  it  meant  the  *cult'  of  a  God,  and  that  mainly, 
though  not  exclusively,  by  ceremonials,  or  by  oral  and 
verbal  praise  and  petition.  Now,  it  is  obvious  that 
that  is  the  meaning  of  the  expression  in  my  text, 
because  otherwise  you  would  have  a  patently  absurd 
saying.  If  James  meant  by  '  religion '  here  what  we 
now  mean  by  it,  to  say  that  benevolence  and  personal 
purity  are  religion  would  be  just  equivalent  to  and 
as  absurd  as  saying  that  a  mother's  love  is  washing 
and  feeding  her  child,  or  that  anger  is  a  flushed  face 


398  JAiMES  [CH.  i. 

aud  a  loud  voice.  The  feeliug  is  one  thing,  the  expres- 
sion of  it  is  another.  The  feeling  is  religion,  the 
expression  of  it  is  worship.  And  so  if  you  take  the 
true  meaning,  not  only  of  the  original  Greek,  but  also 
of  the  word  '  religion '  at  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  then  you  will  understand  the  passage 
a  little  better  than  some  of  the  people  that  are  so  often 
quoting  it  do. 

For  the  writer  is  not  talking  about  religion,  but 
about  its  expression,  *  worship.'  And  he  says  that 
'  true  worship^  pure  and  undefiled  ...  is  to  visit  the 
widows  and  the  fatherless  in  their  affliction,  and  to 
keep  oneself  unspotted  from  the  world.'  He  has  been, 
in  the  previous  verses,  striking  at  various  forms  of 
self-deception,  such  as  that  a  man  should  conceive 
himself  to  be  all  right,  because  he  listens  to  the  law, 
and  then  goes  away  and  forgets  it,  or  that  a  man 
should  think  himself  a  real  worshipper,  while  he  does 
not  bridle  his  tongue,  and  then  he  states  the  general 
principle  of  my  text  —  worship  has  for  its  selectest 
manifestation  and  form  these  two  things,  beneficence 
and  purity.  Now  I  would  deal  with  these  words  and 
seek  to  point  out  first — 

I.  The  noble  ideal  of  life  that  is  set  before  us  here. 

You  observe  that  there  are  two  great  departments 
into  which  all  the  forms  of  individual  duty  are,  as  it 
were,  swept.  To  put  these  into  plain  words,  the  one 
is  beneficence,  as  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  our 
duties  to  our  fellows,  and  the  other  is  keeping  our- 
selves pure,  as  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  our  duties 
to  ourselves.  Now  I  would  notice,  for  it  strikes  me  as 
being  remarkable,  that  duties  to  other  people  are  put 
first,  and  duties  to  ourselves  second.  I  do  not  know 
that  there  is  any  question  of  practical  morality  more 


V.27]  PURK   WORSHIP  399 

difficult  for  us  to  settle,  with  full  satisfaction  to  our- 
selves, than  <hc  relative  proportion,  in  our  lives,  of  caro 
for  ourselves,  for  our  own  culture,  for  our  own  rectifica- 
tion,for  our  own  growth  in  grace  and  righteousness,and 
our  obligations  to  our  fellows.  It  is  very  hard  for  us  to 
note  how  much  we  ought  to  give  to  the  definite  purpose 
of  trying  to  make  ourselves  better,  and  how  much  we 
ought  to  give  to  the  other  purpose  of  forgetting  our- 
selves, and  seeking  for  the  good  of  other  people.  But 
James,  although  he  does  not  enter  into  the  difficulties 
which  clog  the  solution  of  that  question  for  us  individu- 
ally, does  seem  to  think  that  the  first  thing  to  be  looked 
after  is  other  people,  and  that  in  looking  after  such 
other  people  we  shall  be  most  efficiently  keeping  our- 
selves unspotted  from  the  world.  And  it  is  so,  for  if 
we  get  around  us,  as  it  were,  an  atmosphere  of 
sympathy,  of  unselfish  regard,  of  unwearied  effort  for 
the  benefit  of  other  people,  it  is  like  the  thin  film  or  air 
that  may  surround  some  object,  and  prevent  the  fire 
from  reaching  it  for  a  moment  or  two.  We  shall  find 
that  by  no  means  the  least  powerful  detergent  to  purge 
from  us  the  spots  of  the  world  is  an  honest  and 
thorough-going  flinging  of  ourselves  into  the  necessi- 
ties and  the  sorrows  of  other  people. 

But  I  should  like  to  put  in  a  caution  here.  I  believe 
that  there  are  a  great  many  good  folk  in  this  genera- 
tion who  have  their  hands  so  full  of  Christian  work 
that  they  have  no  time  at  all  for  the  development  of 
their  own  Christian  character  in  any  other  way,  and 
that  they  lack  an  intelligent  grasp  of  the  principles  of 
the  gospel,  and  many  things  that  would  make  their 
work  upon  other  people  a  hundred  times  better,  just 
because  they  are  so  busy  helping  other  folk  that  they 
have  no  time  at  all  to  look  after  themselves.    And  so 


400  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

the  Church  as  a  whole  to-day  has,  as  I  believe,  not  too 
much  beneficent  and  religious  machinery,  for  there 
never  can  be  too  much  of  that — but  too  much  relatively 
to  the  strength  of  the  Church  to  drive  it.  Your  engine 
is  too  big  for  your  boiler,  and  to  this  busy  generation, 
in  which  'Christian  worker*  has  all  but  blotted  out 
the  conception  of  '  Christian  thinker '  and  '  Christian 
scholar,'  I  believe  that  it  needs  to  be  preached,  not  so 
much  'Look  after  other  people'  as  'Do  not  forget 
yourself.'  '  Take  heed  to  thyself,  and  to  thy  teaching,' 
was  good  counsel  for  Paul's  young  representative,  and 
it  is  good  counsel  for  us  all.  '  What  God  hath  joined 
together,  let  no  man  put  asunder.'  '  Visit  the  widows 
and  the  fatherless  in  their  affliction,'  by  all  means  ;  and 
'  Keep  yourselves  unspotted  from  the  world.' 

I  suppose  that  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that 
James  does  not  mean  visiting  the  widows  and  father- 
less to  be  taken  as  a  complete  statement  of  our  duties 
to  others.  He  singles  out  that  one  form  which  sym- 
pathy and  hopefulness  will  take,  as  a  typical  example 
of  the  whole  class  of  actions  in  which  love  will  express 
itself.    Nor  need  I  do  more  than  say  in  passing  that 

•  visiting '  means  more  than  calling  on — namely,  look- 
ing after  and  caring  for.  The  sum  of  all  Christian 
duties  to  others,  then,  is  gathered  up  in  hopeful  and 
sympathetic  love,  and  in  regard  to  ourselves  James 
sums  them  up  in  what  looks,  after  all,  rather  an  in- 
complete ideal :  '  Keep  yourselves  unspotted  from  the 
world.'    He  does  not  say  with  any  falsely  ascetic  twist, 

*  Keep  yourselves  out  of  the  world.'  No !  He  says,  'Fling 
yourselves  into  it,  and  when  you  are  in  the  thickest 
of  the  muddy  ways,  see  that  no  spots  and  splashes 
of  filth  come  on  your  white  garments.'  That  implies 
that  it  is  very  likely,  unless  we  take  very  rigid  care, 


T.  27]  PURE  WORSHIP  401 

that  contact  with  the  external  world,  and  with  the 
aggregate  of  Godless  men  which  makes  the  world,  in 
the  New  Testament  sense  of  the  phrase,  will  infect 
Christian  men  and  women  with  evil,  even  when  they 
are  going  on  with  their  works  of  beneficence.  And  I 
suppose  we  all  know  that  that  is  true. 

But  here  you  get  a  very  negative  view  of 
the  sum  of  Christian  duty.  Some  people  preach 
'  culture.'  James  says,  *  Try  to  keep  yourselves  clean.' 
He  realises  that  there  is  something  more  to  be  done 
by  each  of  us  with  ourselves  than  to  develop  or  draw 
out  and  increase  that  which  is  in  us,  that  there  needs 
to  be  another  process,  and  that  is  to  get  rid  of  a  great 
deal  that  is  within  us.  We  must  cease  to  be  much  of 
what  we  are  before  we  can  be  that  which  we  may  be 
and  ought  to  be.  Slay  self  first  that  you  may  live. 
Cultivate  ?     Yes  I  and  crucify  as  well. 

Nor  does  James  think  any  the  less  nobly  of  the 
resulting  self,  because  he  says  that  you  will 
form  the  noblest  character  mainly  by  the  way  of 
negation.  I  know,  of  course,  that  that  is  only  one- 
sided ;  but  do  we  not  all  know  that  by  reason  of  the 
abounding  evil  around  us,  and  the  proclivities  more 
or  less  dormant,  but  existing,  to  much  of  that  evil, 
which  are  in  our  own  hearts,  we  do  need  that  the  law 
of  our  life  should  very  largely  be  cast  in  the  form  '  Do 
not.*  Any  man  who  has  honestly  set  himself  to  the 
task  of  moulding  his  life  into  the  likeness  which  God 
would  approve,  must  know  that  to  walk  through  the 
wards  of  an  hospital  and  catch  no  infection,  to  stand 
in  a  dung-heap  and  bring  away  no  stench  nor  foulness 
clinging  to  the  robes,  is  as  easy  as  it  is  to  plunge  into 
the  world  and  catch  no  contagion  and  no  pollution 
there. 

So 


402  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

And  yet,  says  Jamos,  you  have  to  do  that.  He  sums 
up  Christian  duty  in  this  negative  form,  that  is  remark- 
able, and  he  flings  the  whole  weight  and  burden  of  it 
on  the  man  himself,  that  is  more  remarkable  still. 
And  yet  we  have  only  to  read  the  rest  of  the  chapter 
to  see  that  ho  is  not  forgetting  that  there  must  be  a 
Divine  Keeper  to  keep  the  keepers,  and  that  we  shall 
never  keep  ourselves  '  unspotted '  unless  we  trust  to 
Him  who  has  said  '  I  will  keep  thy  feet  from  falling.' 
So  we  need  not  wonder  at  the  emphasis  that  is  placed 
on  the  human  side  of  the  energy  that  is  to  be  put 
forth  in  order  to  mould  men  into  this  character.  But 
I  desire  to  say  here  what  I  think  some  tendencies  of 
good  people's  opinions  in  this  day  do  especially  need : 
that  we  do  not  get  cleansed,  hallowed,  sanctified,  by 
faith  only,  but  that  the  office  of  faith  is  to  bring  into 
our  possession  the  power  which  will  sanctify  us  if 
we  use  our  own  efforts.  '  Having  therefore  these 
promises,  dearly  beloved,  let  us  cleanse  ourselves  from 
all  filthiness  of  flesh  and  jpirit,'  and  not  trust  to  faith 
alone  to  make  us  pure. 

II.  We  have  here,  secondly,  the  true  and  pure 
worship  in  such  a  life. 

I  need  not  repeat  what  I  have  already  said  at  the 
beginning  of  these  remarks  as  to  the  true  bearing  of 
the  principle  laid  down  here.  Only  let  me  remind  you 
that  the  writer  is  not  flouting,  or  putting  away  out  of 
court,  other  forms  of  action  which  are  more  frequently 
called  worship.  True  religion,  which  expresses  itself, 
according  to  James,  most  nobly  in  the  worship  of  life, 
must  express  itself  by  all  the  other  means  which  men 
have  for  expressing  their  inmost  selves,  by  the  worship 
of  words,  by  symbolical  deed,  by  a  ceremonial  as  well 
as  by  the  visiting  of  the  widows  and  the  fatherless, 


V.27]  PURE  WORSHIP  403 

and  the  keeping  oneself  unspotted  from  the  world. 
But  what  is  insisted  upon  here  is  that  of  these  two 
ways— both  of  them  equally  natural  and  equally  indis- 
pensable, if  there  be  any  religion  to  express — in  some 
aspects  the  higher  and  the  nobler  is  the  dumb  worship 
of  a  pure  and  beneficent  life.  Now,  of  course,  we  are 
accustomed  as  Nonconformists  to  think  that  texts  of 
this  sort  hit  the  adherents  of  a  more  elaborate,  sen- 
suous, and  ceremonial  form  of  worship  than  finds 
favour  in  our  eyes,  very  hard,  and  sometimes  to  forget 
that  they  hit  us  quite  as  hard.  There  may  be  quite  as 
real  ritualists  amongst  Nonconformists  as  there  are 
amongst  Anglicans  or  Roman  Catholics — I  was  going  to 
say  amongst  Quakers — as  amongst  the  adherents  of  any 
form  of  Christian  worship.  For  it  is  not  the  elabora- 
tion of  the  form,  but  it  is  the  existence  of  it,  that 
tempts  men  to  trust  too  much  to  it.  And  the  baldest — 
to  use  a  modern  term  of  opprobrium — Nonconformist 
worship  may  be  just  as  productive  of  immoral  reliance 
upon  it,  on  the  part  of  those  who  adhere  to  it,  as  the 
most  elaborate  and  sensuous  ceremonial  that  fills  a 
cathedral  with  clouds  of  incense,  and  calls  upon  men 
to  worship  simply  by  looking  on  at  a  priest  performing 
his  miracle.  Dear  brethren,  you  and  I  need  the  warn- 
ing as  much  as  anybody  ever  did.  There  are  people,  I 
have  no  doubt,  who  leave  their  religion  in  their  pews, 
and  lock  it  up  there  in  the  box  along  with  their  hymn 
books,  and  whose  notion  of  religion  is  very  little  more 
than  coming  to  a  so-called  *  place  of  worship '  and  offer- 
ing up  verbal  prayers.  There  creep  in  insincerity, 
unreality,  unconscious  hypocrisy;  there  creeps  in 
mechanical,  perfunctory  utterance  of  the  words  of 
praise,  or  listening  to  the  voice  of  the  preacher.  How 
many  of  you  think  about  the  hymns  you  sing,  and  make 


404  JAMES  [CH.  I. 

them  the  expression  of  your  own  feelings?  How  many 
of  you  fancy  that  you  have  spent  the  Sunday  rightly 
when  you  go  to  church  and  listen  more  or  less  atten- 
tively to  what  your  minister  may  have  to  say  to  you, 
and  then  go  out  and  live  a  life  in  flat  contradiction  to 
the  prayers,  and  the  hymns,  and  the  readings,  and  the 
preachings  in  which  you  have  nominally  taken  part  ? 
Oh,  brethren  I  let  us  get  into  reality,  and  learn  more 
and  more  than  ever  we  have  done  that  worship  does 
not  mean  the  external  act,  but  the  bowing  of  the  spirit 
before  God,  and  that  amidst  the  many  temptations  to 
insincerity,  unreality,  and  dead,  fossil  formalism,  which 
adhere  to  all  forms  of  oral  and  ceremonial  worship, 
there  is  as  much  need  to-day  as  ever  there  was  that 
we  should  listen  to  him  who  says,  'What  hath  thy  God 
required  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ? '  *  Lord !  Lord !  have  we 
not  prophesied  in  Thy  name?*  'Depart  from  Me;  I 
never  knew  you.' 

III.  And  now  let  me  say  one  last  word  as  to  the  only 
possible  foundation  for  such  a  life. 

It  is  worship,  it  is  the  expression  of  religion,  and 
only  when  it  is  the  expression  of  religion  will  you  find 
beneficence  and  purity  in  their  highest  and  noblest 
forms.  There  are  people  that  say,  *I  do  not  under- 
stand the  Psalms;  they  are  far  too  rapturous  and 
emotional  for  me.  I  do  not  care  about  Paul  and  his 
metaphysical  theology.  I  cannot  make  much  of  Jolui 
and  his  mysticism.  Give  me  James.  That  is  plain 
common-sense;  that  is  good  practical  morality.  No 
clouds  of  darkness,  no  fine-spun  theories.'  Yes,  and 
James  has  for  his  fundamental  principle  that  if  you 
want  morality  you  must  begin  with  religion.  He 
believes  that  visiting  the  widows  and  the  fatherless  in 


V.27]  PURE  WORSHIP  405 

affliction,  and  keeping  oneself  unspotted  from  the 
world,  or,  in  other  words,  the  highest  form  of  morality, 
is  the  body,  of  which  religion  is  the  soul. 

I  am  not  going  to  enter  upon  that  thorny  question 
of  the  possibility  of  having  an  independent  theory  of 
ethics  without  religion,  but  my  point  is  this — theory 
or  no  theory,  where  will  you  get  the  practical  power 
that  will  work  the  theory  and  bring  it  out  of  the 
region  of  theory  into  the  region  of  daily  life  and  fact  ? 
I  know  it  is  extremely  narrow,  extremely  old-fashioned, 
extremely  illiberal,  and  I  believe  it  is  profoundly  true. 
Begin  with  Jesus  Christ  and  the  wish  to  please  Him, 
and  there  is  the  root  out  of  which  all  these  self-regard- 
ing and  other's  regarding  graces  and  beauties  will 
most  surely  come.  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  can  make 
your  model  of  a  life  without  Christianity,  though  I 
fancy  that  a  great  deal  of  the  model  comes  from  the 
Christianity.  But  after  you  have  got  it,  then  one 
comes  and  says,  '  Well !  it  is  all  very  pretty — a  beauti- 
ful model ;  do  you  think  it  will  work  ? '  If  you  want  it 
to  work,  obtain  the  fire  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  get  up  the 
steam  and  then  it  will  work.  You  must  begin  with 
religion  if  you  are  to  have  a  vigorous  moral  life,  and 
your  work  in  the  world  must  be  worship  if  it  is  to  rise 
to  the  height  of  these  two  great  forms  of  beautiful 
and  noble  life,  the  regard  for  others  and  the  effort  at 
purity  for  yourselves. 

Do  not  run  away  with  the  perversion  of  this  text 
which  says,  'I  do  not  frequent  churches  and  chapels; 
that  is  not  worship.  The  diffused  worship  of  my  life 
is  what  God  wants.'  Yes,  that  is  what  God  wants. 
And  you  will  be  most  likely  to  render  the  diffused 
worship  of  a  life  if  you  have  reservoirs  in  the  life — like 
Sundays,  like  hours  of  private  devotion  and  prayer — 


406  JAMES  [CH.  II. 

from  which  will  flow — and  without  which  I  doubt  there 
will  not  deeply  and  perennially  flow  the  broad  streams 
of  devotion  all  through  your  days.  '  Work  is  worship ' 
is  a  monastic  motto  that  is  very  frequently  quoted 
nowadays.  Well,  'it  depends,'  as  they  say.  Work  is 
worship  if  there  is  a  reference  to  God  in  it.  It  is  not 
worship  unless  there  is.  Brethren,  begin  where  the 
New  Testament  begins,  with  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
you  will  end  with  a  worship  which  harmonises  the 
service  of  the  lip  and  the  service  of  the  life.  And  if 
you  do  not  begin  so,  you  may  flout  the  prayers  of  the 
Church,  and  look  upon  our  gatherings  together  as  of 
very  little  value,  but  I  doubt  extremely  whether  you 
will  ever  have  in  your  life  the  all-present  reference  to 
God  which  will  make  common  deeds  worship,  and  I 
doubt  whether  you  will  ever  succeed  either  in  bene- 
ficence to  others,  or  in  keeping  yourselves  unspotted 
from  the  world. 


FAITH  IN  HIS  NAME 

'The  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesas  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory.*— James  li.  L 

The  rarity  of  the  mention  of  Jesus  in  this  Epistle  must 
strike  every  attentive  reader ;  but  the  character  of  the 
references  that  are  made  is  equally  noticeable,  and  puts 
beyond  doubt  that,  whatever  is  the  explanation  of 
their  fewness,  lower  thoughts  of  Jesus,  or  less  devotion 
to  Him  than  belonged  to  the  other  New  Testament 
writers,  are  not  the  explanation.  James  mentions 
Christ  uu  aistakably  only  three  times.  The  first  occa- 
sion is  in  his  introductory  salutation,  where,  like  the 
other  New  Testament  writers,  he  describes  himself  as 
•the  slave  of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ';  thus 


v.l]  FAITH  IN  HIS  NAME  407 

linking  the  two  names  in  closest  union,  and  proffering 
unlimited  obedience  to  his  Master.  The  second  case  is 
that  of  my  text,  in  which  our  Lord  is  set  forth  by  this 
solemn  designation,  and  is  declared  to  be  the  object  of 
faith.  The  last  is  in  an  exhortation  to  patience  in  view 
of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  to  be  our  Judge. 

So  James,  like  Peter  and  Paul  and  John,  looked  to 
Jesus,  who  was  probably  the  brother  of  James  by 
birth,  as  being  the  Lord,  whom  it  was  no  blasphemy 
nor  idolatry  to  name  in  the  same  breath  as  God,  and 
to  whom  the  same  absolute  obedience  was  to  be 
rendered;  who  was  to  be  the  object  of  men's  un- 
limited trust,  and  who  was  to  come  again  to  be  our 
Judge. 

Here  we  have,  in  this  remarkable  utterance,  four 
distinct  designations  of  that  Saviour,  a  constellation 
of  glories  gathered  together;  and  I  wish  now,  in  a 
few  remarks,  to  isolate,  and  gaze  at  the  several  stars 
— 'the  faith  of  our  Lord — Jesus — Christ — the  Lord  of 
glory.' 

I.  Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus. 

We  often  forget  that  that  name  was  common,  wholly 
undistinguished,  and  borne  by  very  many  of  our  Lord's 
contemporaries.  It  had  been  borne  by  the  great  soldier 
whom  we  know  as  Joshua ;  and  we  know  that  it  was 
the  name  of  one  at  least  of  the  disciples  of  our  Master. 
Its  disuse  after  Him,  both  by  Jew  and  Christian,  is 
easily  intelligible.  But  though  He  bore  it  with  special 
reference  to  His  work  of  saving  His  people  from  their 
sins.  He  shared  it,  as  He  shared  manhood,  with  many 
another  of  the  sons  of  Abraham,  Of  course,  Jesus  is 
the  name  that  is  usually  employed  in  the  Gospels. 
But  when  we  turn  to  the  Epistles,  we  find  that  it  is 
comparatively  rare  for  it  to  stand  alone,  and  that  in 


408  JAMES  [en.  n. 

alnoost  all  the  instances  of  its  employment  by  itself, 
it  brings  with  it  the  special  note  of  pointing  attention 
to  the  manhood  of  our  Lord  Jesus.  Let  me  just  gather 
together  one  or  two  instances  which  may  help  to 
elucidate  this  matter. 

Who  does  not  feel,  for  example,  that  when  we  read 
•  let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us, 
looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of  faith/ 
the  fact  of  our  brother  Man  having  trodden  the  same 
path,  and  being  the  pattern  for  our  patience  and  per- 
severance, is  tenderly  laid  upon  our  hearts?  Again, 
when  we  read  of  sympathy  as  being  felt  to  us  by  the 
great  High  Priest  who  can  be  *  touched  with  a  feeling 
of  our  infirmities,  even  Jesus,'  I  think  we  cannot  but 
recognise  that  His  humanity  is  pressed  upon  our 
thoughts,  as  securing  to  us  that  we  have  not  only  the 
pity  of  a  God,  but  the  compassion  of  a  Man,  who  knows 
by  experience  the  bitterness  of  our  sorrows. 

In  like  manner  we  read  sometimes  that  '  Jesus  died 
for  us,'  sometimes  that  *  Christ  died  for  us ' ;  and, 
though  the  two  forms  of  the  statement  present  the 
same  fact,  they  present  it,  so  to  speak,  from  a  different 
angle  of  vision,  and  suggest  to  us  different  thoughts. 
When  Paul,  for  example,  says  to  us,  *If  we  believe 
that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,*  we  cannot  but  feel 
that  he  is  pressing  on  us  the  thought  of  the  true  man- 
hood of  that  Saviour  who,  in  His  death,  as  in  His 
resurrection,  is  the  Forerunner  of  them  that  believe 
upon  Him,  and  whose  death  will  be  the  more  peaceful, 
and  their  rising  the  more  certain,  because  Ho,  who, 
•forasmuch  as  the  children  were  partakers  of  flesh 
and  blood  likewise  took  part  of  the  same,'  has  there- 
by destroyed  death,  and  delivered  them  from  its 
bondage.    Nor,  with  less  emphasis,  and  strengthening 


v.l]  FAITH  IN  HIS  NAME  409 

triumphant  force,  do  we  read  that  this  same  Jesus,  the 
Man  who  bore  our  nature  in  its  fulness  and  is  kindred 
to  us  in  flesh  and  spirit,  has  risen  from  the  dead,  hath 
ascended  up  on  high,  and  is  the  Forerunner,  who  for 
us,  by  virtue  of  His  humanity,  has  entered  in  thither. 
Surely  the  most  insensitive  ear  must  catch  the  music, 
and  the  deep  significance  of  the  word  which  says,  *  We 
see  not  yet  all  things  put  under  him  (i.e.,  man),  but  we 
see  Jesus  crowned  with  glory  and  honour.' 

So,  then.  Christian  faith  first  lays  hold  of  that  man- 
hood, realises  the  suffering  and  death  as  those  of  a 
true  humanity,  recognises  that  He  bore  in  His  nature 
'  all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,'  and  that  His  human 
life  is  a  brother's  pattern  for  ours ;  that,  He  having 
died,  death  hath  no  more  terrors  for,  or  dominion  over, 
us,  and  that  whither  the  Man  Jesus  has  gone,  we  sinful 
men  need  never  fear  to  enter,  nor  doubt  that  we  shall 
enter,  too. 

If  our  faith  lays  hold  on  Jesus  the  Man,  we  shall  be 
delivered  from  the  misery  of  wasting  our  earthly  affec- 
tions on  creatures  that  may  be  false,  that  may  change, 
that  must  be  feeble,  and  will  surely  die.  If  our  faith 
lays  hold  on  the  Man  Jesus,  all  the  treasures  of  the 
human  love,  trust,  and  obedience,  that  are  so  often 
squandered,  and  return  as  pain  on  our  deceived  and 
wounded  hearts,  will  find  their  sure,  sweet,  stable 
object  in  Him.  Human  love  is  sometimes  false  and 
fickle,  always  feeble  and  frail;  human  wisdom  has  its 
limits,  and  human  perfection  its  flaws;  but  the  Man 
Jesus  is  the  perfect,  the  all-sufficient  and  unchangeable 
object  for  all  the  love,  the  trust,  and  the  obedience 
that  the  human  heart  can  pour  out  before  Him. 

II.  Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

The  earliest  Christian  confession,  the  simplest  and 


410  JAMES  [0H.n. 

sufficient  creed,  was,  Jesus  is  the  Christ.  What  do  we 
mean  by  that?  We  mean,  first  and  plainly,  that  He 
is  the  realisation  of  the  dim  figure  which  arose, 
majestic  and  enigmatical,  through  the  mists  of  a  partial 
revelation.  We  mean  that  He  is,  as  the  word  signifies 
etymologically,  'anointed'  with  the  Divine  Spirit,  for 
the  discharge  of  all  the  offices  which,  in  old  days,  were 
filled  by  men  who  were  fitted  and  designated  for  them 
by  outward  unction — prophet,  priest,  and  king.  We 
mean  that  He  is  the  substance  of  which  ancient  ritual 
was  the  shadow.  We  mean  that  He  is  the  goal  to 
which  all  that  former  partial  unveiling  of  the  mind 
and  will  of  God  steadfastly  pointed.  This,  and  nothing 
less,  is  the  meaning  of  the  declaration  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ;  and  that  belief  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of 
the  faith  which  this  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews,  writing 
to  Hebrews,  declares  to  be  the  Christian  faith. 

Now  I  know,  and  I  am  thankful  to  know,  that  there 
are  many  men  who  earnestly  and  reverently  admire 
and  obey  Jesus,  but  think  that  they  have  nothing  to 
do  with  these  old  Hebrew  ideas  of  a  Christ.  It  is  not 
for  me  to  decide  which  individual  is  His  follower,  and 
which  is  not ;  but  this  I  say,  that  the  primitive  Christian 
confession  was  precisely  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  and 
that  I,  for  my  part,  know  no  reason  why  the  terms  of 
the  confession  should  be  altered.  Ah,  these  old  Jewish 
ideas  are  not,  as  one  great  man  has  called  them, 
*  Hebrew  old  clothes ' ;  and  I  venture  to  assert  that 
they  are  not  to  be  discarded  without  woefully  marring 
the  completeness  of  Christian  faith. 

The  faith  in  Jesus  must  pass  into  faith  in  Christ ;  for 
it  is  the  office  described  in.  that  name,  which  gives  all 
its  virtue  to  the  manhood.  Glance  back  for  a  moment 
to  those  instances  which  I  have  already  quoted  of  the 


v.i]  FAITH  IN  HIS  NAME  411 

use  of  the  name  suggesting  simple  humanity,  and  note 
how  all  of  them  require  to  be  associated  with  this 
other  thought  of  the  function  of  Christ,  and  His  special 
designation  by  the  anointing  of  God,  in  order  that 
their  full  value  may  be  made  manifest. 

For  instance,  'Jesus  died,'  Yes,  that  is  a  fact  of 
history.  The  Man  was  crucified.  What  is  that  to  me 
more  than  any  other  martyrdom  and  its  story,  unless 
it  derives  its  significance  from  the  clear  understanding 
of  who  it  was  that  died  upon  the  Cross  ?  So  we  can 
understand  that  significant  selection  of  terms,  when 
the  same  Apostle,  whose  utterances  I  have  already  been 
quoting  in  the  former  part  of  this  sermon,  varies  the 
name,  and  says,  'This  is  the  gospel  which  I  declared 
unto  you,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according 
to  the  Scriptures.* 

Again,  suppose  we  think  of  the  example  of  Jesus  as 
the  perfect  realised  ideal  of  human  life.  That  may 
become,  and  I  think  often  does  become,  as  impotent 
and  as  paralysing  as  any  other  specimen  without 
flaw,  that  can  be  conceived  of  or  presented  to  man. 
But  if  we  listen  to  the  teaching  that  says  to  us, '  Christ 
died  for  us,  leaving  us  an  example  that  we  should 
follow  His  steps,'  then  the  ideal  is  not  like  a  cold  statue 
that  looks  down  repellent  even  in  its  beauty,  but  is  a 
living  person  who  reaches  a  hand  down  to  us  to  lift  us 
to  His  own  level,  and  will  put  His  spirit  within  us,  that, 
as  the  Master  is,  so  may  also  the  servants  be. 

Again,  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  belief  that  the 
Man  named  Jesus  has  risen  again,  and  has  been  exalted 
to  glory,  then,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  faith  in  His 
Resurrection  and  Ascension  will  not  long  co-exist  with 
the  rejection  of  anything  beyond  simple  humanity  in 
His  person.     If,  however,  that  faith  could  last,  then  He 


412  JAMES  [cH.ii. 

might  be  conceived  of  as  filling  a  solitary  throne,  and 
there  might  be  no  victory  over  death  for  the  rest  of  us 
in  His  triumph.  But  when  we  can  ring  out  as  the 
Apostle  did,  •  Now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,'  then 
wo  can  also  say,  '  and  is  become  the  first-fruits  of 
them  that  slept.' 

So,  brethren,  lift  your  faith  in  Jesus,  and  let  it  be 
sublimed  into  faith  in  Christ.  '  Whom  say  ye  that  I 
am?'  The  answer  is — may  we  all  from  our  hearts  and 
from  our  minds  make  it ! — *  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God.' 

III.  Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord. 

Now,  I  take  it  that  that  name  is  here  used  neither  in 
its  lowest  sense  as  a  mere  designation  of  politeness,  as 
we  employ  'sir,'  nor  in  its  highest  sense  in  which, 
referred  to  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  not  unfrequently  used  in 
the  New  Testament  as  being  equivalent  to  the  'Jehovah ' 
of  the  Old ;  but  that  it  is  employed  in  a  middle  sense 
as  expressive  of  dignity  and  sovereignty. 

Jesus  is  Lord.  Our  brother,  a  Man,  is  King  of  the 
universe.  The  new  thing  in  Christ's  return  to  '  the 
glory  which  He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world 
was '  is  that  He  took  the  manhood  with  Him  into  indis- 
soluble union  with  the  divinity,  and  that  a  man  is 
Lord.  So  you  and  I  can  cherish  that  wonderful  hope : 
'  I  will  give  to  him  that  overcometh  to  sit  with  Me  on 
My  throne.'  Nor  need  we  ever  fear  but  that  all  things 
concerning  ourselves  and  our  dear  ones,  and  the 
Church  and  the  world,  will  be  ordered  aright ;  for  the 
hand  that  sways  the  universe  is  the  hand  that  was 
many  a  time  laid  in  blessing  upon  the  sick  and  the 
maimed,  and  that  gathered  little  children  to  Hia 
bosom. 

Christ  is  Lord.    That  is  to  say,  supreme  dominion  is 


V.  1]  FAITH  IN  HIS  NAME  418 

based  on  suffering.  Because  the  vesture  that  He  wears 
is  dipped  in  blood,  therefore  there  is  written  upon  it, 
•King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords.'  The  Cross  has 
become  the  throne.  There  is  the  basis  of  all  true  rule, 
and  there  is  the  assurance  that  His  dominion  is  an 
everlasting  dominion.  So  our  faith  is  to  rise  from 
earth,  and,  like  the  dying  martyr,  to  see  the  Son  of 
Man  at  the  right  hand  of  the  majesty  of  the  heavens. 

IV.  Lastly,  Christian  faith  is  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
•the  Lord  of  glory.* 

Now,  the  last  words  of  my  text  have  given  great 
trouble  to  commentators.  A  great  many  explanations, 
with  which  I  need  not  trouble  you,  have  been  suggested 
with  regard  to  them.  One  old  explanation  has  been 
comparatively  neglected ;  and  yet  it  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  true  one.  *  The  Lord '  is  a  supplement  which  ekes 
out  a  meaning,  but,  as  I  think,  obscures  the  meaning. 
Suppose  we  strike  it  out  and  read  straight  on.  What 
do  wo  get  ?  '  The  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Glory.' 

And  is  that  not  intelligible  ?  Remember  to  whom 
James  was  writing — Jews.  Did  not  every  Jew  know 
what  the  Shekinah  was,  the  light  that  used  to  shine 
between  the  Cherubim,  as  the  manifest  symbol  of  the 
divine  presence,  but  which  had  long  been  absent  from 
the  Temple?  And  when  James  falls  back  upon  that 
familiar  Hebrew  expression,  and  recalls  the  vanished 
lustre  that  lay  upon  the  mercy-seat,  surely  he  would 
be  understood  by  his  Hebrew  readers,  and  should  bo 
understood  by  us,  as  saying  no  more  and  no  other  than 
another  of  the  New  Testament  writers  has  said  with  re- 
ference to  the  same  symbolical  manifestation — namely, 
•The  Word  became  flesh  tabernacled  among  us;  and 
we  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  the  only  Begotten  of 


414  JAMES  [CH.  II. 

the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth.'  James's  sentence 
runs  on  precisely  the  same  lines  as  other  sentences  of 
the  New  Testament.  For  instance,  the  Apostle  Paul,  in 
one  place,  speaks  of  '  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  our  hope.' 
And  this  statement  is  constructed  in  exactly  the  same 
fashion,  with  the  last  name  put  in  opposition  to  the 
others,  *  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Glory.' 

Now,  what  does  that  mean  ?  This — that  the  true 
presence  of  God,  that  the  true  lustrous  emanation  from, 
and  manifestation  of,  the  abysmal  brightness,  is  in 
Jesus  Christ,  '  the  effulgence  of  His  glory  and  the  ex- 
press image  of  His  person.'  For  the  central  blaze  of 
God's  glory  is  God's  love,  and  that  rises  to  its  highest 
degree  in  the  name  and  mission  of  Jesus  Christ  our 
Saviour.  Men  conceive  of  the  glory  of  the  divine 
nature  as  lying  in  the  attributes  which  separate  it 
most  widely  from  our  impotent,  limited,  changeable, 
and  fleeting  being.  God  conceives  of  His  highest  glory 
as  being  in  that  love,  of  which  the  love  of  earth  is  a 
kindred  spark ;  and  whatever  else  there  may  be  of 
majestic  and  magnificent  in  Him,  the  heart  of  the 
Divinity  is  a  heart  of  love. 

Brethren,  if  we  would  see  God,  our  faith  must  grasp 
the  Man,  the  Christ,  the  Lord,  and,  as  climax  of  all 
names — the  Incarnate  God,  the  Eternal  Word,  who  has 
come  among  us  to  reveal  to  us  men  the  glory  of  the 
Lord. 

So,  brethren,  let  us  make  sure  that  the  fleshy  tables 
of  our  hearts  are  not  like  the  mouldering  stones  that 
antiquarians  dig  up  on  some  historical  site,  bearing 
half-obliterated  inscriptions  and  fragmentary  names 
of  mighty  kings  of  long  ago,  but  bearing  the  many- 
syllabled  Name  written  firm,  clear,  legible,  complete 
upon  them,  as  on  some  granite  block  from  the  stone- 


v.l]  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS  415 

cutter's  chisel.  Let  us,  whilst  wo  cling  with  human 
love  to  the  Man  that  was  born  in  Bethlehem,  discern 
the  Christ  that  was  prophesied  from  of  old,  to  whom 
all  altars  point,  of  whom  all  prophets  spoke,  who  was 
the  theme  end  of  all  the  earlier  Revelation.  Let  us 
crown  Him  Lord  of  All  in  our  own  hearts,  and  let  us, 
beholding  in  Him  the  glory  of  the  Father,  lie  in  His 
Light  until  we  are  changed  into  the  same  image.  Be 
sure  that  your  faith  is  a  full-orbed  faith  ;  grasp  all  the 
many  sides  of  the  Name  that  is  above  every  name. 
And  let  us,  like  the  apostles  of  old,  rejoice  if  we  are 
counted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  for  the  Name.  Let 
us  go  forth  into  life  for  the  sake  of  the  Name,  and, 
whatsoever  we  do  in  word  or  deed,  let  us  do  all  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Glory. 


FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS 

'What  doth  It  profit,  my  brethren,  though  a  man  say  he  hath  faith,  and  have 
not  works?  can  faith  save  him?  15.  If  a  brother  or  sister  be  naked,  and  destitute 
of  daily  food,  16.  And  one  of  yo\i  say  unto  them,  Depart  in  peace,  be  ye  vrarmed 
and  filled ;  notwithstanding  ye  give  them  not  those  things  which  are  needful  to 
the  body;  what  doth  it  profit?  17.  Even  so  faith,  if  it  hath  not  works,  is  dead, 
being  alone.  18.  Yea,  a  man  may  say.  Thou  hast  faith,  and  I  have  works:  shew 
me  thy  faith  without  thy  works,  and  I  will  shew  thee  my  faith  by  my  works.  19. 
Thou  believest  that  there  is  one  God  ;  thou  doest  well :  the  devils  also  believe,  and 
tremble.  20.  But  wilt  thou  know,  O  vain  man,  that  faith  without  works  is  dead  ? 
21.  Was  not  Abraham  our  father  justified  by  works,  when  he  had  ofFcrcd  Isaac 
his  son  upon  the  altar?  22.  Seest  thou  how  faith  wrought  with  his  works,  and  by 
works  was  faith  made  perfect?  23.  And  the  scripture  was  fulfilled  which  saith, 
Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was  imputed  unto  him  for  righteousness:  and  he 
was  called  the  Friend  of  God.'— James  ii.  14-23. 

James  thrice  reiterates  his  point  in  this  passage,  and 
each  repetition  closes  a  branch  of  his  argument.  In 
verse  17  he  draws  the  inference  from  his  illustration 
of  a  worthy  sympathy  which  does  nothing  ;  in  verse 
20  he  deduces  the  same  conclusion  from  the  speech  put 
into  the  mouth  of  an  imaginary  speaker ;  in  verse  24 
he  draws  it  from  the  life  of  Abraham.    We  shall  best 


416  JAMES  [CH.  II. 

get  hold  of  the  scope  of  these  verses  by  taking  these 
three  parts  separately. 

I.  Now,  most  misconceptions  of  a  writer's  meaning 
are  due  to  imperfect  definition  of  terms.  James  was 
no  metaphysician,  and  he  does  not  stop  to  put  pre- 
cisely what  he  means  by  '  faith.'  Clearly  he  meant  by 
it  the  full  evangelical  meaning  of  trust  when  he  used 
it  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  letter  (Jas.  i.  3, 6;  ii.  1-5).  As 
clearly  he  here  means  a  mere  intellectual  belief  of  reli- 
gious truth,  a  barren  orthodoxy.  If  that  undeniable 
explanation  of  his  terminology  is  kept  steadily  in  view, 
much  of  the  difficulty  which  has  been  found  in  bring- 
ing his  teaching  into  harmony  with  Paul's  melts  away 
at  once.  There  is  a  distinct  difference  of  tone  and 
point  of  view  between  the  two,  but  they  entirely  agree 
in  the  worthlessness  of  such  a  'faith,'  if  faith  it  can  be 
called.  Probably  Paul  would  not  have  called  it  so,  but 
James  accepts  the  'saying'  of  the  man  whom  he  is 
confuting,  and  consents  to  call  his  purely  intellectual 
belief  faith.  And  then  he  crushes  it  to  atoms  as  hollow 
and  worthless,  in  which  process  Paul  would  gladly 
have  lent  a  hand. 

"We  may  observe  that  verse  14  begins  with  supposing 
the  case  of  a  mere  lip  '  faith,'  while  verse  17  widens  its 
conclusion  to  include  not  only  that,  but  any  'faith,' 
however  real,  which  does  not  lead  to  works.  The  logic 
of  the  passage  would,  perhaps,  hang  better  together  if 
verso  14  had  run  '  if  a  man  have  faith ' ;  but  there  is 
keen  irony  as  well  as  truth  in  the  suggestion  that  a 
faith  which  has  no  deeds  often  has  abundant  talk. 
The  people  who  least  live  their  creeds  are  not  seldom 
the  people  who  shout  loudest  about  them.  The  para- 
lysis which  affects  the  arms  does  not,  in  these  cases, 
interfere  with  the  tongue.    James  had  seen  plenty  of 


vs.  14-23]  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS  417 

that  kind  of  faith,  both  among  Pharisees  and  Jewish 
Christians,  and  he  had  a  holy  horror  of  loose  tongues 
(Jas.  iii.  2-12).  That  kind  of  faith  is  not  extinct  yet, 
and  we  need  to  urge  James's  question  quite  as  much  as 
he  did:  *  Can  that  faith  save?'  Observe  the  emphasis 
on  'that'  which  the  Revised  Version  rightly  gives. 

The  homely  illustration  of  the  very  tender  sympathy 
which  gushes  inwards,  and  does  nothing  to  clothe 
naked  backs  or  fill  empty  stomachs,  perhaps  has  a 
sting  in  it.  Possibly  the  very  orthodox  Jewish  Chris- 
tians with  whom  James  is  contending  were  less  willing 
to  help  poor  brethren  than  were  the  Gentile  Christians. 

But,  in  any  case,  there  is  no  denying  the  force  of 
the  parallel.  Sympathy,  like  every  other  emotion,  is 
meant  to  influence  action.  If  it  does  not,  what  is  the 
use  of  it  ?  What  is  the  good  of  getting  up  fire  in  the 
furnace,  and  making  a  mighty  roaring  of  steam,  if  it 
all  escapes  at  the  waste-pipe,  and  drives  no  wheels? 
And  what  is  the  good  of  a  'faith'  which  only  rushes 
out  at  the  escape-pipe  of  talk  ?  It  is  '  dead  in  itself.' 
Romans  ii.  17-29  shows  Paul's  way  of  putting  the 
same  truth.  Emotion  and  beliefs  which  do  not  shape 
conduct  are  worthless.  Faith,  if  it  have  not  works, 
is  dead. 

II.  The  same  conclusion  is  arrived  at  by  another 
road  in  verses  18-20.  James  introduces  an  imaginary 
speaker,  who  replies  to  the  man  who  says  that  he  has 
faith.  This  new  interlocutor  *  says '  his  say  too.  But 
he  is  not  objecting,  as  has  been  sometimes  thought,  to 
James,  but  to  the  first  speaker,  and  he  is  expressing 
James's  own  thought,  which  the  Apostle  does  not  utter 
in  his  own  person,  perhaps  because  he  would  avoid  the 
appearance  of  boasting  of  his  own  deeds.  To  take  this 
speaker  as  opposing  James  brings  hopeless  confusion, 

2d 


418  JAMES  [CH.  II. 

What  does  the  new  speaker  say?  He  takes  up  the 
first  one's  assertion  of  having  '  faith  ' ;  he  will  not  say 
that  he  himself  has  it,  but  he  challenges  the  other  man 
to  show  his,  if  he  can,  by  any  other  way  than  by 
exhibiting  the  fruits  of  faith,  while  he  himself  is  pre- 
pared and  content  to  be  tested  by  the  same  test.  That 
is  to  say,  talk  does  not  prove  the  possession  of  faith  ; 
the  only  possible  demonstration  that  one  has  it  is 
deeds,  which  are  its  fruits.  If  a  man  has  (true)  faith, 
it  will  mould  his  conduct.  If  he  has  nothing  to  pro- 
duce but  his  bare  assertion,  then  he  cannot  show  it  at 
all ;  and  if  no  evidence  of  its  existence  is  forthcoming, 
it  does  not  exist. 

Motion  is  the  test  of  life.  A  *  faith  *  which  does  no- 
thing, which  moves  no  limb,  is  a  corpse.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  grapes  grow  ruddy  and  sweet  in  their  clusters, 
there  must  be  a  vine  on  which  they  grow,  though  its 
stem  and  root  may  be  unseen.  '  What  is  bred  in  the 
bone  will  come  out  in  the  flesh.'  True  faith  will  be 
fruitful.  Is  not  this  Paul's  doctrine  too?  Does  not  he 
speak  of  '  faith  that  worketh  by  love  ? '  Is  it  not  his 
principle,  too,  that  faith  is  the  source  of  conduct,  the 
active  principle  of  the  Christian  life,  and  that  if  there 
are  no  results  of  it  in  the  life,  there  is  none  of  it  in  the 
heart  ? 

But  the  second  speaker  has  a  sharp  dart  of  irony  in  his 
quiver  (verse  13).  *  You  plume  yourself  on  your  mono- 
theistic creed,  do  you,  and  you  think  that  that  is 
enough  to  make  you  a  child  of  God's  ?  Well,  that  is 
good,  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  does  not  go  very  far.  You 
have  companions  in  it,  for  the  demons  believe  it  still 
more  thoroughly  than  you  do;  and,  what  is  more,  it 
produces  more  effect  on  them  than  on  you.  You  do 
nothing  in  consequence  of  your  belief;  they  "  shudder," 


vs.  14-23]  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS  419 

at  any  rate— a  grim  result,  but  one  showing  that  their 
belief  goes  deeper  than  yours.*  The  arrow  gains  in 
point  and  keenness  if  we  observe  that  James  quotes 
the  very  words  which  are  contained  in  the  great 
profession  of  monotheism  which  was  recited  morning 
and  evening  by  every  Jew  (Deut.  vi.  4,  etc.).  James 
seems,  in  verse  20,  to  speak  again  in  his  own  name, 
and  to  reassert  his  main  thought  as  enforced  by  this 
second  argument. 

III.  He  has  been  arguing  from  the  very  nature  of 
faith,  and  the  relation  between  it  and  conduct.  Now 
he  turns  to  history  and  appeals  to  Abraham's  case.  In 
these  verses  he  goes  over  the  same  ground  as  Paul  does 
in  Romans  v.,  and  there  is  a  distinct  verbal  contradic- 
tion between  verse  24  here  and  Romans  iii.  28 ;  but  it 
is  only  verbal.  Are  the  two  apostles  writing  in  ignor- 
ance of  each  other's  words,  or  does  the  one  refer  to  the 
other,  and,  if  so,  which  is  the  earlier  ?  These  are  in- 
teresting questions,  to  deal  with  which  satisfactorily 
would  more  than  exhaust  our  space. 

No  doubt  the  case  of  Abraham  was  a  commonplace 
in  rabbinical  teaching,  and  both  Paul  and  James  had 
been  accustomed  to  hear  his  history  commented  upon 
and  tortured  in  all  sorts  of  connections.  The  mere 
reference  to  the  patriarch  is  no  proof  of  either 
writer  having  known  of  the  other;  but  the  manner 
of  it  raises  a  presumption  in  that  direction,  and  if 
either  is  referring  to  the  other,  it  is  easier  to  under- 
stand Paul  if  he  is  alluding  to  James,  than  James  as 
alluding  to  Paul. 

Their  apparent  disagreement  is  only  apparent.  For 
what  are  the  '  works '  to  which  James  ascribes  justify- 
ing power  ?  Verse  22  distinctly  answers  the  question. 
They  are  acts  which  spring  from  faith,  and  which  in 


420  JAMES  [CH.  n. 

turn,  as  being  its  fruits,  •  perfect '  it,  as  a  tree  is  perfect 
when  it  has  manifested  its  maturity  by  bearing. 
Surely  Paul's  doctrine  is  absolutely  identical  with  this. 
He  too  held  that,  on  the  one  hand,  faith  creates  work, 
and  on  the  other,  works  perfect  faith.  The  works 
which  Paul  declares  are  valueless,  and  which  he  calls 
*  the  works  of  the  law,'  are  not  those  which  James 
asserts  •  justify.'  The  faith  which  James  brands  as 
worthless  is  not  that  which  Paul  proclaims  as  the  con- 
dition of  justifying ;  the  one  is  a  mere  assent  to  a 
creed,  the  other  is  a  living  trust  in  a  living  Person. 

James  points  to  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac  as  'justifying' 
Abraham,  and  has  in  mind  the  divine  eulogium,  'Now 
I  know  that  thou  fearest  God,  seeing  thou  hast  not 
withheld  thy  son,  thine  only  son,  from  Me,'  but  he 
distinctly  traces  that  transcendent  act  of  an  unques- 
tioning devotion  to  the  '  faith'  which  wrought  with  it, 
and  was  perfected  by  it.  He  quotes  the  earlier  divine 
declaration  (Gen.  xv.  6)  as  'fulfilled'  at  that  later  time, 
by  which  very  expression  is  implied,  not  only  that  the 
root  of  the  sacrifice  was  faith,  but  that  the  words 
were  true  in  a  yet  higher  sense  and  completer  degree, 
when  that  sacrifice  had  '  perfected '  the  patriarch's 
faith. 

The  ultimate  conclusion  in  verse  24  has  to  be  read  in 
the  light  of  these  considerations,  and  then  it  appears 
plainly  that  there  is  no  contradiction  in  fact  between 
the  two  apostles.  'The  argument  .  .  .  has  no  bearing 
on  St.  Paul's  doctrine,  its  purport  being,  in  the  words 
of  John  Bunyan,  to  insist  that  "  at  the  day  of  doom 
men  shall  be  judged  according  to  their  fruit."  It 
will  not  be  said  then,  Did  you  believe?  but,  "Were  you 
doers  or  talkers  only?'  (Mayor,  Epistle  of  St.  James, 
LXXXVIII). 


vs.  u-23]  GOD'S  FRIENDS  421 

No  doubt,  the  two  men  look  at  the  truth  from  a 
somewhat  different  standpoint.  The  one  is  intensely 
practical,  the  other  goes  deeper.  The  one  fixes  his  eye 
on  the  fruits,  the  other  digs  down  to  the  root.  To  the 
one  the  flow  of  the  river  is  the  more  prominent ;  to  the 
other,  the  fountain  from  which  it  rises.  But  they 
supplement,  and  do  not  contradict,  each  other.  A 
shrewd  old  Scotsman  once  criticised  an  elaborate 
*  Harmony '  of  the  Gospels,  by  the  remark  that  the 
author  had  '  spent  a  heap  of  pains  in  making  four  men 
agree  that  had  never  cast  [fallen]  out.'  We  may  say 
the  same  of  many  laborious  reconciliations  of  James, 
the  urgent  preacher  of  Christian  righteousness,  and 
Paul,  the  earnest  proclaimer  that '  a  man  is  justified  by 
faith  without  the  deeds  of  the  law.' 


GOD'S  FRIENDS 

*Ee  was  called  the  Friend  of  God.'— James  iL  23k 

When  and  by  whom  was  he  so  called  ?  There  are  two 
passages  in  the  Old  Testament  in  which  an  analogous 
designation  is  applied  to  the  patriarch,  but  probably 
the  name  was  one  in  current  use  amongst  the  people, 
and  expressed  in  a  summary  fashion  the  impression 
that  had  been  made  by  the  history  of  Abraham's  life. 
A  sweet  fate  to  have  that  as  the  brief  record  of  a 
character,  and  to  be  known  throughout  the  ages  by 
such  an  epitaph !  As  many  of  us  are  aware,  this  name, 
'the  Friend,'  has  displaced  the  proper  name,  Abraham, 
on  the  lips  of  all  Mohammedan  people  to  this  day ;  and 
the  city  of  Hebron,  where  his  corpse  lies,  is  commonly 
known  simply  as  '  the  Friend.* 
My  object  in  this  sermon  is  a  very  simple  one.    I 


422  JAMES  [CH.  n. 

merely  wish  to  bring  out  two  or  three  of  the  salient 
elements  and  characteristics  of  friendship  as  exercised 
on  the  human  level,  and  to  use  these  as  a  standard  and 
test  of  our  religion  and  relation  to  God. 

But  I  may  just  notice,  for  a  moment,  how  beautiful 
and  blessed  a  thought  it  is  which  underlies  this  and 
similar  representations  of  Scripture — viz.,  that  the 
bond  which  unites  us  to  God  is  the  very  same  as  that 
which  most  sweetly  and  strongly  ties  men  to  one 
another,  and  that,  after  all,  religion  is  nothing  more 
or  less  than  the  transference  to  Him  of  the  emotions 
which  make  all  the  sweetness  of  human  life  and 
society. 

Now,  I  shall  try  to  bring  out  two  or  three  points 
which  are  included  in  that  name,  *  the  Friend  of  God,* 
and  to  ask  ourselves  if  they  apply  to  our  relations  to 
Him. 

I.  First,  friends  trust  and  love  one  another. 

Mutual  confidence  is  the  mortar  which  binds  the 
stones  in  society  together,  into  a  building.  It  makes 
the  difference  between  the  herding  together  of  beasts 
and  the  association  of  men.  No  community  could 
keep  together  for  an  hour  without  mutual  confidence, 
even  in  regard  of  the  least  intimate  relationships  of 
life.  But  it  is  the  very  life-blood  of  friendship.  You 
cannot  say, '  A.  B.  is  my  friend,  but  I  do  not  trust  him.* 
If  suspicion  creeps  in,  like  the  foul  malaria  of  tropical 
swamps,  it  kills  all  friendship.  Therefore  *he  was 
called  the  Friend  of  God*  is  by  James  deduced  from 
the  fact  that  *  he  believed  God,  and  it  was  imputed  to 
him  for  righteousness.'  You  cannot  make  a  friend  of 
a  man  that  you  do  not  know  where  to  have.  There 
may  be  some  vague  reverence  of,  or  abject  reluctant 
submission  to,   'the    unknown    God,'    the    something 


V.23]  GOD'S  FRIENDS  428 

outside  of  ourselves  that  perhaps  makes  for  righteous- 
ness; but  for  any  vivid,  warm  throb  of  friendship 
there  must  be,  first,  a  clear  knowledge,  and  then  a 
living  grappling  of  that  knowledge  to  my  very  heart, 
by  my  faith.  Unless  I  trust  God  I  cannot  be  a  friend 
of  God's.  If  you  and  I  are  His  friends  we  trust  Him, 
and  He  will  trust  us.  For  this  friendship  is  not  one- 
sided, and  the  name,  though  it  may  be  ambiguous  as 
to  whether  it  means  one  whom  I  love  or  one  who 
loves  me,  really  includes  both  persons  to  the  compact ; 
and  there  are  analogous,  if  not  identical,  emotions  in 
each.  So  that,  if  I  trust  God,  I  may  be  sure  that  God 
trusts  me,  and,  in  His  confidence,  leaves  a  great  deal 
to  me ;  and  so  ennobles  and  glorifies  me  by  His  reliance 
upon  me. 

But  whilst  we  know  that  this  belief  in  God  was  the 
very  nerve  and  centre  of  Abraham's  whole  character, 
and  was  the  reason  why  he  was  called  the  friend  of 
God,  we  must  also  remember  that,  as  James  insists 
upon  here,  it  was  no  mere  idle  assent,  no  mere  intel- 
lectual conviction  that  God  could  not  tell  lies,  which 
was  dignified  by  the  name  of  belief,  but  that  it  was, 
as  James  insists  upon  in  the  context,  a  trust  which 
proved  itself  to  be  valid,  because  it  was  continually 
operative  in  the  life.  •  Faith  without  works  is  dead.' 
•And  Abraham,  our  father,  was  he  not  justified  by 
works  ? ' 

And  so  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  if  you  will  re- 
member, traces  up  to  his  faith  all  the  chief  points  in 
his  life.  *  By  faith  he  went  out  from  the  land  where 
he  dwelt;  by  faith  he  dwelt  in  tabernacles,'  in  the 
promised  land,  believing  that  it  should  be  his  and  his 
seed's ;  '  by  faith '  he  offered  up  his  son  on  the  altar. 

Thus  we  come  to  this,  that  the  heavenly  and  the 


424.  JAMES  [CH.  n. 

earthly  friend,  like  friends  on  the  low  levels  of 
humanity,  love  each  other  because  they  trust  each 
other.  I  have  said  that  the  words  '  My  friend '  may 
either  mean  one  whom  I  love  or  one  who  loves  me, 
but  that  the  two  things  are  in  the  present  connection 
inseparable.  Only  let  us  remember  where  the  sweet 
reciprocation  and  interchange  of  love  begins.  'We 
love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us.'  'When  we  were 
enemies  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of 
His  Son.'  And  so  we  have  to  turn  to  that  heavenly 
Friend,  and  feel  that  as  life  itself,  so  the  love  which  is 
the  life  of  life,  has  its  beginning  in  Him,  and  that 
never  would  our  hearts  have  turned  themselves  from 
their  alienation,  unless  there  had  poured  down  upon 
them  the  attractive  outflow  of  His  great  love.  It  was 
an  old  fancy  that,  wherever  a  tree  was  struck  by 
lightning,  all  its  tremulous  foliage  turned  in  the 
direction  from  which  the  bolt  had  come.  When  the 
merciful  flash  of  God's  great  love  strikes  a  heart,  then 
all  its  tendrils  turn  to  the  source  of  the  life-giving 
light,  and  we  love  back  again,  in  sweet  reverberation 
to  the  primal  and  original  love.  Dear  brethren,  I  lay 
upon  your  heart  and  mine  this  thought,  that  friends 
trust  and  love  each  other.  Do  we  trust  and  love  our 
God? 

II.  Friends  have  frank,  familiar  intercourse  with 
one  another. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  illuminative  example  in  our  text, 
and  remember  God's  frankness  with  Abraham.  '  Shall 
I  hide  from  Abraham  the  thing  that  I  will  do?'  Let 
us  cap  that — as  we  can,  marvellous  and  great  as  the 
utterance  is — by  another  one,  'I  call  you  not  servants, 
but  friends;  for  all  things  that  I  have  heard  of  My 
Father  I  declare  unto  you.'    So  much  for  God's  frank- 


V.  23]  GOD'S  FRIENDS  425 

ness.  What  about  Abraham's  frankness  with  God? 
Remember  how  he  remonstrated  with  Him;  how  he 
complained  to  Him  of  His  dealings ;  how  he  persisted 
with  importunity,  which  would  have  been  pre- 
sumptuous but  for  the  friendship  which  underlay  it, 
and  warranted  the  bold  words.  And  let  us  take  the 
simple  lesson  that  if  we  are  friends  and  lovers  of  God, 
we  shall  delight  in  intercourse  with  Him.  It  is  a 
strange  kind  of  religion  that  does  not  care  to  be  with 
God,  that  would  rather  think  about  anything  else  than 
about  Him,  that  is  all  unused  to  quiet,  solitary  con- 
versation and  communion  with  Him,  but  it  is  the 
religion  of,  I  wonder,  how  many  of  us  to-day.  He 
would  be  a  strange  friend  that  never  crossed  your 
threshold  if  you  could  help  it;  that  was  evidently 
uncomfortable  in  your  presence,  and  ill  at  ease  till  he 
got  away  from  you,  and  that  when  he  came  was  struck 
dumb,  and  had  not  a  word  to  say  for  himself,  and  did 
not  know  or  feel  that  he  and  you  had  any  interests 
or  subjects  in  common.  Is  that  not  a  good  deal  like 
the  religion  of  hosts  of  professing  Christians  ?  '  He 
was  called  the  friend  of  God,'  and  he  never,  all  his 
days,  if  he  could  help  it,  thought  about  Him  or  went 
near  Him ! 

If  we  are  friends  of  God,  we  shall  have  no  secrets 
from  Him.  There  are  very  few  of  those  who  are 
dearest  to  us  to  whom  we  could  venture  to  lay  bare  all 
the  depths  of  our  hearts.  There  are  black  things  down 
in  the  cellars  that  we  do  not  like  to  show  to  any  of  our 
friends.  We  receive  them  upstairs,  in  the  rooms  for 
company.  But  you  should  take  God  all  through  the 
house.  And  if  there  is  the  trust  and  the  love  that  I 
have  been  speaking  about,  we  shall  not  be  afraid  to 
spread  out  all  our  foulness,  and  our  meanness,  and 


426  JAMES  [CH.  ii. 

our  unworthy  thoughts  of,  and  acts  towards,  Him, 
before  His  '  pure  eyes  and  perfect  judgment,'  and  say, 
'Nobody  but  my  best  friend  could  look  at  such  a 
dungheap,  but  I  spread  it  before  Thee.  Look  at  it,  and 
Thou  wilt  cleanse  it ;  look  at  it,  and  it  will  melt  away. 
Look  at  it,  and  in  the  knowledge  that  Thou  knowest, 
my  knowledge  of  it  will  be  less  of  a  torment,  and 
my  bosom  will  be  cleansed  of  its  perilous  stuff.' 

Tell  God  all,  if  you  mean  to  be  a  friend  of  His. 
And  do  not  be  afraid  to  tell  Him  your  harsh  thoughts 
of  Him,  and  your  complaints  of  Him.  He  never 
resents  anything  that  a  man  who  loves  Him  says 
about  Him,  if  he  says  it  to  Him.  What  He  resents — 
if  I  might  use  the  word — is  our  huddling  up  grudges 
and  murmurings  and  questionings  in  our  own  hearts, 
and  saying  never  a  word  to  the  friend  against  whom 
they  offend.  Out  with  it  all,  brethren!  Complaints, 
regrets,  questionings,  petitions,  hot  wishes,  take  them 
all  to  Him ;  and  be  sure  that  instead  of  their  break- 
ing, they  will,  if  spoken,  cement  the  friendship  which 
is  disturbed  by  secrecy  on  our  parts. 

If  we  are  God's  lovers,  He  will  have  no  secrets 
from  us.  '  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them  that 
fear  Him ;  and  He  will  show  them  His  covenant.' 
There  is  a  strange  wisdom  and  insight,  sometimes 
amounting  even  to  prophetic  anticipation,  which 
creeps  into  a  simple  heart  that  is  knit  closely  to  God. 
But  whether  the  result  of  our  friendship  with  Him  be 
such  communication  of  such  kinds  of  insight  or  no, 
we  may  be  sure  of  this,  that,  if  we  trust  Him,  and 
love  Him,  and  are  frank  with  Him,  He  will  in  so  far 
be  frank  with  us,  that  He  will  impart  unto  us  Him- 
self, and  in  the  knowledge  of  His  love  we  shall  find  all 
the  knowledge  that  we  need. 


v.as]  GOD'S  FRIENDS  427 

III.  Friends  delight  to  meet  each  other's  wishes. 

Let  us  go  hack  to  our  story  again.  The  humble, 
earthly  friend  of  God  did  as  God  bade  him,  substan- 
tially all  his  life,  from  the  day  when  he  made  the 
'  Great  Refusal,'  and  left  behind  him  home  and  kindred 
and  all,  until  the  day  when  he  went  up  the  sides  of 
Moriah  to  offer  there  his  son.  Abraham  met  God's 
wishes  because  Abraham  trusted  and  loved  God. 

And  what  about  the  Divine  Friend?  Did  He  not 
meet  Abraham's  wishes  ?  You  remember  that  wonder- 
ful scene,  which  presents,  in  such  vivid  and  dramatic 
form,  the  everlasting  truth  that  the  man  who  bows 
his  will  to  God,  bows  God's  will  to  his,  when  he  pleaded 
for  Sodom,  and  won  his  case  by  persistence  and  impor- 
tunity of  lowly  prayer.  And  these  historical  notices 
on  both  sides  are  for  us  the  vehicles  of  the  permanent 
truth  that,  if  we  are  God's  lovers  and  friends,  we  shall 
find  nothing  sweeter  than  bowing  to  His  will  and 
executing  His  commandments.  As  I  dare  say  I  have 
often  said  to  you,  the  very  mark  and  signature  of  love 
is  that  it  delights  to  divine  and  fulfil  the  desires  of  the 
beloved,  and  that  it  moulds  the  will  of  each  of  the 
parties  into  conformity  with  the  will  of  the  other. 

Ah,  dear  brethren  !  what  a  commentary  our  religion 
is  upon  such  thoughts !  To  how  many  of  us  is  the 
very  notion  of  religion  that  of  a  prohibition  of  things 
that  we  would  much  like  to  do,  and  of  commands  to 
do  things  that  we  had  much  rather  not  do  ?  All  the 
slavery  of  abject  submission,  of  reluctant  service,  is 
clean  swept  away,  when  we  understand  that  friendship 
and  love  find  their  supreme  delight  in  discovering  and 
in  executing  the  will  of  the  beloved.  And  surely  if 
you  and  I  are  the  friends  of  God,  the  cold  words, 
•duty,'  'mast,'   'should,'  will   be    struck   out   of   our 


428  JAMES  [CH.  IL 

vocabulary  and  will  be  replaced  by  'delight,*  'cannot 
but,'  'will.'  For  friends  find  the  very  life — I  was 
going  to  say  the  voice— of  their  friendship  in  mutual 
obedience. 

And  God,  the  heavenly  Friend,  will  do  what  we  wish. 
In  that  very  connection  did  Jesus  Christ  put  the  two 
thoughts  of  friendship  with  Him  and  His  executing  His 
disciple's  behests;  saying  in  one  breath,  'Ye  are  My 
friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command  you,'  and  in 
the  next,  'Ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be 
done  unto  you.'  This  conformity  of  will,  so  that  there 
is  but  one  will  in  the  two  hearts,  which  is  the  very 
consummation  and  superlative  degree  of  human  friend- 
ship and  love,  applies  as  truly  to  the  friendship  between 
man  and  God. 

IV.  Friends  give  gifts  to  each  other. 

Let  us  go  back  to  our  story.  What  did  Abraham 
give  God?  'Forasmuch  as  he  hath  not  withheld  his 
only  son  from  Me,  I  know  that  he  fears  Me.'  And 
what  does  God  give  to  His  friends  ?  '  He  that  spared 
not  His  own  Son,  but  freely  delivered  Him  up  to  the 
death  for  us  all,  how  shall  He  not  with  Him  also  freely 
give  us  all  things  ? '  Abraham's  gift  of  his  son  to  God 
was  but  a  feeble  shadow  of  God's  gift  of  His  Son  to  men. 
And  if  the  surrender  on  the  part  of  the  human  friend 
was  the  infallible  token  of  his  love,  surely  the  surrender 
on  the  part  of  the  heavenly  Friend  is  no  less  the  in- 
fallible sign  of  His  love  to  all  the  world.  Generalise 
these  thoughts  and  they  come  to  this.  If  we  are  God's 
lovers  God  will  give  us  Himself,  in  so  far  as  we  can 
receive  Him ;  and  all  other  gifts  in  so  far  as  they  are 
good  and  needful.  If  we  are  God's  friends  and  lovers 
we  shall  give  Him,  in  glad  surrender,  our  whole  selves. 
And,  remember,  if  you   feel  that  you  have  separate 


V.  23]  GOD'S  FRIENDS  429 

interests  from  Him,  if  you  keep  things  and  do  not  let 
Him  say, '  These  are  mine ' ;  if  you  grudge  sacrifice,  and 
will  not  hear  of  self-surrender,  and  are  living  lives 
centred  in,  ruled  by,  devoted  to,  self,  you  have  little 
reason  to  call  yourself  a  Christian.  •  Ye  are  My  friends 
if  ye' — not  only  'do  whatsoever  I  command  you,'  but 
'  if  you  give  yourself  to  Me.'  Yield  yourselves  to  God, 
and  in  the  giving  of  yourselves  to  Him,  you  will  get 
back  yourselves  glorified  and  blessed  by  the  gift. 
There  is  no  friendship  if  self  shuts  out  the  friend  from 
participation  in  what  is  the  other's.  As  long  as  'mine' 
lies  on  this  side  of  a  high  wall,  and  '  thine '  on  the  other, 
there  is  but  little  friendship.  Down  with  the  wall, 
and  say  about  everything  '  Ours ' ;  and  then  you  have 
a  right  to  say  '  I  am  the  friend  of  God.' 

V.  Lastly,  and  but  a  word.  Friends  stand  up  for 
each  other. 

'I  am  thy  shield;  fear  not,  Abraham,'  said  God, 
when  His  friend  was  in  danger  from  the  vengeance 
of  the  Eastern  kings  whom  he  had  defeated ;  and  all 
through  life  the  same  strong  arm  was  cast  around  him. 
Abraham,  on  his  part,  had  to  stand  up  for  God  amidst 
his  heathen  neighbours. 

If  we  are  God's  friends  and  lovers  He  will  take  up 
our  cause.  Be  sure  that  if  God  be  for  us,  it  matters  not 
who  is  against  us.  If  we  are  God's  friends  and  lovers 
we  have  to  take  up  His  cause.  What  would  you  think 
of  a  man  who,  in  going  away  to  a  far-off  country,  said 
to  some  friend,  '  I  wish  you  would  look  after  so  and  so 
for  me  as  long  as  I  am  gone ' ;  and  the  friend  would  say 
'  Yes ! '  and  never  give  a  thought  nor  lift  a  finger  to 
discharge  the  obligation  ?  God  trusts  His  reputation 
to  you  Christian  people  ;  He  has  interests  in  this  world 
that  you  have  to  look  after.     You  have  to  defend  Him 


430  JAMES  [OH.  II. 

as  really  as  He  has  to  defend  you.  And  it  is  the 
dreadful  contradiction  of  religious  people's  profession 
of  religion  that  they  often  care  so  little,  and  do  so  little 
to  promote  the  cause,  to  defend  the  name,  to  adorn  the 
reputation,  and  to  further  what  I  may  venture  to  call 
the  interests,  of  their  heavenly  Friend  in  the  world. 

Dear  brother,  looking  at  these  things,  can  you 
venture  to  say  that  you  are  a  friend  of  God  ?  If  you 
cannot,  what  are  you  ?  Our  relations  to  men  admit 
of  our  dividing  them  into  three— friends,  enemies, 
nothings.  We  may  love,  we  may  hate,  we  may  be 
absolutely  indifferent  and  ignorant.  I  am  afraid  the 
three  states  cannot  be  transferred  exactly  to  our 
relations  to  God.  If  not  His  friend,  what  are  you? 
Have  you  only  a  far-off,  bowing  acquaintance  with 
Him  ?  Well,  then,  that  is  because  you  have  neglected, 
if  you  have  not  spurned,  His  offered  friendship.  And, 
ohl  how  much  you  have  lost!  No  human  heart  is  a 
millionth  part  so  sweet,  and  so  capable  of  satisfying 
you  as  God's.  All  friendship  here  has  its  limits,  its 
changes,  its  end.  God's  is  boundless,  immutable, 
eternal.  All  things  are  the  friends  of  God's  friend ;  and 
all  things  are  arrayed  against  him  who  rejects  God's 
friendship. 

I  beseech  you,  let  Him  woo  you  to  love  Him;  and 
yield  your  hearts  to  Him.  '  If  when  we  were  "  enemies," 
we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  His  Son,' 
much  more,  being  friends,  all  the  fulness  of  His  love 
and  the  sweetness  of  His  heart  will  be  poured  upon  us 
through  the  living  Christ. 


A  WATCH  ON  THE  DOOR  OF  THE  LIPS 

'  My  brethren,  be  not  many  masters,  knowing  that  we  shall  receive  the  greater 
condenjnation.  2.  For  in  many  things  we  offend  all.  If  any  man  offend  not  in 
word,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man,  and  able  also  to  bridle  the  whole  body.  3.  Behold, 
we  put  bits  in  the  horses'  months,  that  they  may  obey  us ;  and  we  turn  about  their 
whole  body.  i.  Behold  also  the  ships,  which  though  they  be  so  great,  and  are 
driven  of  fierce  winds,  yet  are  they  turned  about  with  a  very  small  helm,  whither- 
soever the  governor  listeth.  5.  Even  so  the  tongue  is  a  little  member,  and  boasteth 
great  things.  Behold,  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth  1  6.  And  the  tongue 
is  a  fire,  a  world  of  iniquity  :  so  is  the  tongue  among  our  members,  that  it  deflleth 
the  whole  body,  and  setteth  on  fire  the  course  of  nature ;  and  it  is  set  on  fire  of 
hell.  7.  For  every  kind  of  beasts,  and  of  birds,  and  of  serpents,  and  of  things  in  the 
sea,  is  tamed,  and  hath  been  tamed  of  mankind  :  8.  But  the  tongue  can  no  man 
tame ;  it  is  an  unruly  evil,  full  of  deadly  poison.  9.  Therewith  bless  we  God,  even 
the  Father  ;  and  therewith  curse  we  men,  which  are  made  after  the  similitude  of 
God.  10.  Out  of  the  same  mouth  proceedeth  blessing  and  cursing.  My  brethren, 
these  things  ought  not  so  to  be.  11.  Doth  a  fountain  send  forth  at  the  same  place 
sweet  water  and  bitter?  12,  Can  the  fig  tree,  my  brethren,  bear  olive  berries? 
either  a  vine,  figs  ?  so  can  no  fountain  both  yield  salt  water  and  fresh.  13.  Who  is 
a  wise  man  and  endued  with  knowledge  among  you  ?  let  him  shew  out  of  a  good 
conversation  his  works  with  meekness  of  wisdom.'— James  iii.  1-13. 

There  is  a  recurrence  to  earlier  teaching  in  James  i. 
19,  26,  which  latter  verse  suggests  the  figure  of  the 
bridle.  James  has  drunk  deep  into  Old  Testament 
teaching  as  to  the  solemn  worth  of  speech,  and  into 
Christ's  declaration  that  by  their  words  men  will  be 
justified  or  condemned. 

No  doubt,  Eastern  peoples  are  looser  tongued  than 
we  Westerns  are;  but  modern  life,  with  its  great 
development  of  cities  and  its  swarm  of  newspapers  and 
the  like,  has  heightened  the  power  of  spoken  and 
printed  words,  and  made  James's  exhortations  even 
more  necessary.  His  teaching  here  gathers  round 
several  images  —  the  bridle,  the  fire,  the  untamed 
creature,  the  double  fountain.  We  deal  with  these  in 
order. 

I.  No  doubt,  in  the  infant  Church,  with  its  flexible 
organisation,  there  were  often  scenes  very  strange  to 
our  eyes,  such  as  Paul  hints  at  in  1  Corinthians  xiv.  26-33, 
where  many  voices  of  would-be  teachers  contended  for 


432  JAMES  [CH.  in. 

a  hearing.  James  would  check  that  unwholesome 
eagerness  by  the  thought  that  teachers  who  do  not 
practice  what  they  preach  will  receive  a  heavier 
judgment  than  those  who  did  not  set  up  to  be 
instructors.  He  humbly  classes  himself  with  the 
teachers.  The  'for'  of  verse  2  introduces  a  reason 
for  the  advice  in  verse  1 — since  it  is  hard  to  avoid 
falls,  and  harder  in  respect  to  speech  than  action, 
it  is  a  dangerous  ambition  to  be  a  teacher. 

That  thought  leads  on  to  the  series  of  considerations 
as  to  the  government  of  the  tongue.  He  who  can 
completely  keep  it  under  command  is  a  '  perfect '  man, 
because  the  difficulty  of  doing  so  is  so  great  that  the 
attainment  of  it  is  a  test  of  perfection.  James  is  like 
the  Hebrew  prophets,  in  that  he  does  not  so  much 
argue  as  illustrate.  His  natural  speech  is  imagery, 
and  here  he  pours  out  a  stream  of  it.  The  horse's 
bridle  and  the  ship's  rudder  may  be  taken  together  as 
both  illustrating  the  two  points  that  the  tongue  guides 
the  body,  and  that  it  is  intended  that  the  man  should 
guide  the  tongue.  These  two  ideas  are  fused  together 
here.  The  bridle  is  put  into  the  mouth,  and  what  acts 
on  the  mouth  influences  the  direction  of  the  horse's 
course.  The  rudder  is  but  a  little  bit  of  wood,  but  its 
motion  turns  the  great  ship,  even  when  driven  by  wild 
winds.  'So  the  tongue  is  a  little  member,  and  boastcth 
great  things,'  which  boasting  is  not  false,  for  the  whole 
point  of  the  passage  is  that  that  little  member  has 
large  power. 

Is  it  true,  as  James  says,  that  it  governs  our  actions 
as  the  bridle  does  the  horse,  or  the  rudder  the  ship  ?  No 
doubt,  many  sins  go  straight  from  the  inner  chambers 
of  the  heart's  desires  out  into  the  world  of  action  with- 
out going  round  by  the  way  of  speech ;  but  still,  if  we 


vs.  1-13]      A  WATCH  ON  THE  LIPS  433 

think  of  the  immense  power  of  our  own  words  and  of 
others  in  setting  our  activities  in  motion,  of  the  dread- 
ful harvest  of  sin  which  has  often  sprung  from  one 
tempting  word,  of  the  ineffaceable  traces  of  pollution 
which  some  vile  book  leaves  in  memory  and  heart,  of 
the  good  and  evil  which  have  been  wrought  by  spoken 
or  printed  words,  and  that  never  more  truly  than 
to-day,  when  a  flood  of  talk  all  but  drowns  the  world, 
we  shall  not  think  James  exaggerating  in  the  awful 
weight  he  gives  to  speech  as  the  mother  of  action. 

His  other  point  is  that  this  guiding  power  needs 
guidance.  A  firm  yet  gentle  hand  touches  the  rein, 
and  the  sensitive  mouth  yields  to  the  light  pressure. 
The  steerman's  hand  pushes  or  draws  the  tiller  an 
inch  from  or  towards  him,  and  the  huge  vessel  yaws 
accordingly.  Speech  is  often  loose.  Most  men  set  less 
careful  watch  on  the  door  of  their  lips  than  of  their 
actions  ;  but  it  would  be  wiser  to  watch  the  inner  gate, 
which  leads  from  thought  to  speech,  than  the  outer 
one,  which  leads  from  speech  to  act.  Idle  words, 
rash  words,  unconsidered  words,  free-flowing  words, 
make  up  much  of  our  conversation.  '  His  tongue  ran 
away  with  him'  is  too  often  true.  It  is  hard  but 
possible,  and  it  is  needful,  to  guide  the  helm,  to  keep  a 
tight  hand  on  the  reins. 

II.  The  next  figure  is  that  of  the  fire,  suggested  by 
the  illustration  of  the  small  spark  which  sets  a  great 
forest  ablaze.  Drop  a  match  or  a  spark  from  a  loco- 
motive or  a  pipe  in  the  prairie  grass,  and  we  know 
what  comes.  The  illustration  was  begun  to  carry  on 
the  contrast  between  the  small  member  and  its  great 
results ;  but  James  catches  fire,  and  goes  off  after  the 
new  suggestion,  '  The  tongue  is  a  fire.' 

Our  space  forbids  discussing  the  interpretation  of 

2b 


434  JAMES  [OH.  III. 

the  difficult  verse  6,  but  the  general  bearing  of  it  is 
clear.  It  reiterates  under  a  fresh  figure  the  thought 
of  the  preceding  verses  as  to  the  power  of  the  tongue 
to  set  the  whole  body  in  motion.  Only  the  imagery 
is  more  lurid,  and  suggests  more  fatal  issues  from  an 
unhallowed  tongue's  influence.  It '  defileth  the  whole 
body.'  Foul  speech,  heard  in  schools  or  places  of 
business,  read  in  filthy  books,  heard  in  theatres,  has 
polluted  many  a  young  life,  and  kindled  fires  which 
have  destroyed  a  man,  body  and  soul.  Speech  is  like 
the  axle  which,  when  it  gets  heated,  sets  the  wheel  on 
fire.  And  what  comes  of  the  train  then  ?  And  what 
set  the  axle  ablaze  ?  The  sulphurous  flames  from  the 
pit  of  Gehenna.  No  man  who  knows  life,  especially 
among  young  boys  and  young  men,  will  think  that 
James  has  lost  the  government  of  his  tongue  in  speak- 
ing thus. 

III.  Next  comes  thefigure  of  the  untamable  wild  beast. 
We  need  not  pin  James  down  to  literal  accuracy  any 
more  than  to  scientific  classification  in  his  zoology. 
His  general  statement  is  true  enough  for  his  purpose, 
for  man  has  long  ago  tamed,  and  still  continues  to  use 
as  tamed,  a  crowd  of  animals  of  most  diverse  sorts, 
fierce  and  meek,  noxious  and  harmless. 

But,  says  James,  in  apparent  contradiction  to  him- 
self, there  is  one  creature  that  resists  all  such  efforts. 
Then  what  is  the  sense  of  your  solemn  exhortations, 
James,  if  •  the  tongue  can  no  man  tame '  ?  In  that  case 
he  who  is  able  to  bridle  it  must  be  more  than  a  perfect 
man.  Yes,  James  believed  that,  though  he  says  little 
about  it.  He  would  have  us  put  emphasis  on  '  no 
man.'  Man's  impossibilities  are  Christ's  actualities. 
So  we  have  here  to  fall  back  on  James's  earlier  word, 
'  If  any  of  you  lack,  ...  let  him  ask  of  God,  .  .  .  and 


vs.  1-13]     A  WATCH  ON  THE  LIPS  435 

it  shall  be  given  him.'  The  position  of  '  man  *  in  the 
Greek  is  emphatic,  and  suggests  that  the  thought  of 
divine  help  is  present  to  the  Apostle. 

He  adds  a  characterisation  of  the  tongue,  which  fits 
in  with  his  image  of  an  untamable  brute  :  '  It  is  a  rest- 
less evil,'  like  some  caged  but  unsubdued  wild  animal, 
ever  pacing  uneasily  up  and  down  its  den ;  '  full  of 
deadly  poison,'  like  some  captured  rattlesnake.  The 
venom  spurted  out  by  a  calumnious  tongue  is  more 
deadly  than  any  snake  poison.  Blasphemous  words, 
or  obscene  words,  shot  into  the  blood  by  one  swift 
dart  of  the  fangs,  may  corrupt  its  whole  current,  and 
there  is  no  Pasteur  to  expel  the  virus. 

IV.  The  last  image,  that  of  the  fountain,  is  adduced 
to  illustrate  the  strange  inconsistencies  of  men,  as 
manifested  in  their  speech.  Words  of  prayer  and 
words  of  cursing  come  from  the  same  lips.  No  doubt 
these  hot-tempered,  and  sometimes  ferociously  religious, 
Jewish  Christians,  to  whom  James  speaks,  had  some 
among  them  whose  portraits  James  is  drawing  here. 
•Away  with  such  a  fellow  from  the  earth  ! '  is  a  strange 
sequel  to  •  Blessed  be  he,  the  God  of  our  fathers.*  But 
the  combination  has  often  been  heard  since.  Te 
Deums  and  anathemas  have  succeeded  one  another 
in  strange  union,  and  religious  controversy  has  not 
always  been  conducted  with  perfect  regard  to  James's 
precepts. 

Of  course  when  the  Apostle  gibbets  the  grotesque 
inconsistency  of  such  a  union,  he  is  not  to  be  taken  as 
allowing  cursing,  if  it  only  keeps  clear  of  'blessing 
God.'  Since  the  latter  is  the  primary  duty  of  all,  and 
the  highest  exercise  of  the  great  gift  of  speech,  any- 
thing inconsistent  with  it  is  absolutely  forbidden,  and 
to   show  the    inconsistency    is  to    condemn    the    act. 


436  JAMES  [CH.  III. 

Further,  the  assertion  that  '  salt  water  cannot  yield 
sweet '  implies  that  the  '  cursing '  destroys  the  reality 
of  the  verbal '  blessing  God.'  If  a  man  says  both,  the 
imprecation  is  his  genuine  voice,  and  the  other  is  mere 
wind. 

The  fountain  is  deeper  than  the  tongue.  From  the 
heart  are  the  issues  of  life.  Out  of  the  abundance  of 
the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh,  and  clear,  pure  waters 
will  not  well  out  thence  unless  the  heart  has  been 
cleansed  by  Christ  entering  into  it.  Only  when  that 
tree  of  life  is  cast  into  the  waters  are  they  made  sweet. 
When  Christ  governs  us,  we  can  govern  our  hearts  and 
our  lips,  and  through  these  our  whole  bodies  and  all 
their  activities. 


I 


Date  Due 


